Andrew Bird, critically acclaimed singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is well-known for his incorporation of violin and fiddle to his indie rock and folk tunes, will be performing at the Mondavi Center on Nov. 14.

Bird first began recording albums in 1996 with the band Bowl of Fire, and soon broke off to create his solo career in 2003. In addition to his six full-length albums and multiple EPs, Bird also made the film score for the film Norman (2010) and The Muppets (2011) and has worked in visual arts, creating installations in the New York Guggenheim and Chicago Museum of Modern Art.

Starting in Davis, Bird kicks off his solo tour around California with opening acts by indie-folk band The Handsome Family. In a phone interview, MUSE spoke with Bird about his creative process, musical development and the process of creating his two most recent albums, Break It Yourself and Hands of Glory.

MUSE: How would you describe your musical development over the years, and what have been your musical inspirations?

AB: I began working on music when I was four, before I was a really conscious being. It was just something I did everyday since I can remember. I think the most formative thing I did early on was that I learned by ear. The idea was that music is like language. This idea is the most important thing for the musician I’ve turned into. People say music is like math, and I cringe when I hear that. Its not like math, it’s anything but math because it’s not about coming up with the right answer in music.

I was just ravenous for everything but classical music — the more obscure the music was, the more interested I was. From ages 16 to 26 I was jumping from one thing to another. I was influenced by early jazz, country blues and early 20th century music. I was really interested in what happened to music before music was recorded. That’s stuff I still play, the hymns, Carter Family stuff. I was influenced by stuff that existed before World War II. I also sing gospel music — it really opens up your singing.

Can you describe your creative process?

It’s not very premeditated most of the time. For the most part I just pay attention to what’s going on around me. I work in the morning, but I don’t have a strict schedule or a desk where I sit at to get all my work done,  unless something comes up and I am asked to do an assignment — then that’s a different process. Mostly, I just wait for things to materialize out of disparate observations. I’ll observe my surroundings and, for example, I’ll see someone sitting on a plane, and then I connect that to something in a book I was reading, and over the years I’ll connect a bunch of different things. There’ll be a common thread and I’ll pull that together in a song. The best way to describe it is: something falls into a stream, like a branch, and then it starts snagging other things around it over time and damns up a river — that’s when you have a song.

How do you think your musical education and training influenced who you are as an artist?

It’s not that I had a teacher that taught me something that stuck with me in particular. I was largely self-taught, and I was not always a model student in school. I give my musical education credit in the sense that I had four years of college to immerse myself in it and not worry about any other distractions. I got better through sheer exposure and osmosis, not so much through book lessons or a particular syllabus. There’s no other time in your life to have that kind of opportunity to focus, so you have to think of it more as an atmosphere where you’re just soaking up as much as you can. All that preparation for the job market makes me cringe. I don’t think that’s the point of higher education.

Describe the tour you’re on right now and the “Gezelligheid” tour coming up right after.

This is my solo songwriting tour. The “Gezelligheid” shows will be played in churches and synagogues around the country. Those shows are more ambient and instrumental and more suited to that kind of reverberant space. In a performing arts center, you can engage with the audience more directly. The church shows are more ambient, with more of a mood and a texture, whereas the tour where I perform in Davis and around California is more about stories, more about words. I’m touring with a favorite songwriting band called The Handsome Family who are opening for me. I cover a lot of their songs, and they’re a huge inspiration.

Your most recent albums are Hands of Glory (Oct. 2012) and Break It Yourself (Mar. 2012), which you recorded in your barn in Illinois. What was the process like for recording these albums?

We just stood up at the barn and recorded around one microphone. These days, I’m kind of into a certain kind of realism when recording. Most of my records are really carefully produced and layered in the studio the way a lot of other records are made, and I got kind of tired of that process. It felt like that process was somewhat less honest than just the band in a room playing with a single microphone live, which is how we made Break it Yourself and Hands of Glory. Pre-World War II stuff has always been there since the beginning of my musical inspiration and I wanted to capture that with the band. We started doing this thing on stage where we just played around one microphone, and it just makes you sing and play better, stripping the production down to its basic elements. The audience responded well to that, and so Hands of Glory is the record that captures that.

Since you recorded both albums in the same year, how would you describe them as companion albums?

Every time I make a record, by the time I get in the studio I’ve imagined each song done in six dramatically different ways. I wonder why I choose to do it this one way on the record versus the other ways to do it. Break it Yourself has a kind of taut, rhythmic, driving version of the songs, so I took Hands of Glory as a chance to show those songs in a totally different emotional backdrop. It makes you look at the lyrics in different way and makes you see the music in different way. Songs on records are never done. They’re always evolving and feel different every moment of the day. In the morning I want to do it one way and in the evening I want to do it in another way. I think that’s worth capturing and it keeps things from getting stale.

Why are you on tour right now?

The prevailing philosophy in the music industry is to hold back all your material and then have a massive publicity push for like twelve songs. I think if you’re going to have any sort of push whatsoever you should get it out there when the machine is going. That’s just what feels right to me. I don’t think I’m at risk of diluting anything. Being onstage is really important to the process for me, so the idea of disappearing entirely and then coming out in five years with a new record is just not good for the music.

Is there something particularly different you try to do to your songs in live shows?

I come from a background of always improvising and exploring. I like to do that on stage. If I didn’t, I’d go crazy. I see other bands who are performing to promote their records. For me, to perform live, I think it’s kind of liberating not to do it to promote new records. I ask myself ‘why are you on stage? Are you trying to create something new and exciting, or are you just recreating your records that you worked on for three years in a studio with producers, etc.?’ That’s not how I do it . It’s never been like that for me, not even close — I started doing records so I could justify playing on stage, that’s really the ultimate experience to perform live. I feel duty to myself that if something new didn’t happen on stage, I could have performed every note perfectly and I’d be disappointed. Every night I need to perform differently from the next in order to feel satisfied.

What’s your relationship with other art forms, like film and visual arts, and where do they fit in with your creative vision?

From the beginning, I didn’t think it’s just enough to be a good violinist. When I made my first records, I got very particular about the artwork and the way everything was presented, even how the stage looked. I wanted to do film scores when I was younger, but suddenly I started writing these full albums with common threads and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is my movie. The stage is 35 mm film, and how everything looks and how everything comes together is the movie. This is the thing I understand how to have control over, and I’m going to make this my whole package.’ But that brought me into collaborating with other artists. My mother’s an artist and I’ve always enjoyed working with people who aren’t musicians. Lately, with things like [my project, Sonic Arboretum, in the New York Guggenheim Museum] the “Gezelligheid” tour, they’re explorations of different ways of presenting and performing besides things like a rock n’ roll show, and working with different experience with audience. For that, I need to work with other artists.

The smell of menswear is in the air as fashion enthusiast and raw denim junkie, third-year electrical engineering major Jasper Siu, gives MUSE the inside scoop on his personal style and how to do menswear his way.

In this week’s edition of Campus Chic, let’s talk raw denim. If you like your clothes nice and clean, raw denim is not for you because these jeans are all about getting down and dirty. Think of them as a blank canvas awaiting to be painted by the colors of your daily experiences or a caterpillar anticipating its metamorphosis into a majestic butterfly after undergoing countless trials and tribulations. If you’re up for the challenge, you will be wearing these jeans everyday without a single wash for up to six months or even an entire year.

A word from the wise: Febreze is your friend. Hang your jeans and spray on a reasonable amount of any air freshener you have to temporarily reduce the odor of the garment. Another way to deodorize your jeans is to secure them in a Ziploc bag and freeze them in order to kill off the bacteria producing the odor. Remember to beware of rain and water as the indigo dye from your jeans can bleed into your white shirt or shoes. Roll the hems of the pant leg to prevent water from reaching your shoes and to show off the selvage detailing of your jeans. After your six months (or year) are up, wash your jeans and you will end up with a beautiful pair of pants customized with every fade and flaw created through all the day-to-day happenings of your busy life. Like Siu says, they truly are your second skin.

James’ Notes: For all the raw denim enthusiasts out there, it might be a better idea to opt for a nice pair of chinos or tailored trousers when going on a date or a job interview. No one needs to smell those dirty jeans of yours, especially not your boss.

Q&A with Jasper Siu

1. If you could describe your personal style in three words, what would they be?

Clean, simple and dark.

2. What are your three must-have items in your wardrobe?

Raw denim, a plain white crewneck T-shirt and a blue Oxford button-up.

3. What do you love about raw denim?

Everything really. First of all, just the fact that it looks better as it ages over time. It’s pretty much like your second skin. As you wear it, you have a small story behind every fade, like a wallet fade or pencil fade. My old pair had my driver’s permit on my left back pocket and even that left an imprint. I like the stiffness behind [raw denim], really. After going back to trying out normal jeans, they kind of felt like sweatpants. They’re just so soft and they didn’t feel like the true jean.

4. How do you maintain your jeans?

I’m more into slim fits so, if I find that it doesn’t fit me on the first wear, I’ll pre-soak it and have my sister tailor it for me. The first soak is to just get the extra shrinkage out and then you just wear it from there. The pair that I’m wearing right now are from United Stock and they fit me fine on my first wear so I’m just going to wear them and wash them in probably another few months.

5. What is your favorite accessory and why?

My Timex weekender watch. It’s my favorite because it’s also a functional accessory. I’m constantly checking it during the day and especially during testing time, so I can manage my time better.

6. Where do you love to shop and why?

For my basics, I like Uniqlo because they have reasonably priced clothing and the quality’s pretty decent. They pretty much have everything you would ever need if you’re looking for something simple.

I also like Supreme a lot because they have really unique clothing and they really held true to what they’ve been doing. They have a lot of designs that don’t follow the norm and they’ve always been very futuristic and ahead of the game. There were a lot of prints that they’ve been doing a few years ago, like full artwork/graphic tees, and people weren’t quite into that when they were doing it; but right now, a lot of the high fashion brands, like Givenchy, are doing the same thing, but [Supreme] had already done it.

7. What is your most treasured item in your wardrobe?

It would have to be this Supreme jacket that I’m wearing now. I remember when I first saw it in the lookbook that came out, I was in the airport on my phone and was like, “What is this? I have to have it!” No matter how much it cost, I was gonna get it.

8. What items do you recommend our readers to incorporate in their wardrobes for the fall season?

Casual vests. It’s a great piece that’ll keep you warmer that doesn’t cover the rest of your outfit but rather adds on another layer.

9. What final tips can you give to our fashion-forward readers?

I know as college students we’re on a tight budget, but sometimes spending a little more money on the essentials can make a big difference. For example, a good leather belt can last you forever, and will look better as it ages if maintained well.