MAKING TRIPLE-A
A CONVERSATION WITH BIRD AND BYRON
Maybe you have had the experience of going to a concert and being totally blown away by the opening act. In such a situation, the headlining band is awesome and everything, but the opening band is incredible! This happened to me lately, at a recent concert in Toronto by Ocean Alley (who are awesome, by the way). The opener in question was the Nashville-based rock and soul duo Bird and Byron.
After just one or two songs into the set, one could tell that this act was the real deal. Lead vocalist Blake Bergere, known as Bird, and guitarist/vocalist Nick Lorenz, who is known as Byron, led their extremely tight band through a 45-min set of originals, engaging with the audience and drawing folks in as they entered the hall. With emotive performances and a complete, polished sound, Bird and Byron left it all on the stage to uproarious audience response at the end of their set. After making a connection in the merch line, we were happy to chat with Bird and Byron, for this feature.
The duo’s journey started in Columbus, OH, where they knew each other as children. Eventually, they recorded their debut EP in Nashville, and the duo moved to the music city in 2022. While maybe not an obvious choice of locale for a rock and soul duo, the proximity to the music community there made perfect sense.
Bird and Byron draw on many varied influences, which inspire them musically. Says Blake, “Nick and I, when we were younger, both of our families grew us up on hard rock …” Adds Nick, “My mom was really into disco from the ’80s, so growing up with a lot of disco, and bands like Duran Duran.” Blake continues on this topic, “I think, in 2022, when we moved to Nashville, we started spreading our wings in terms of what we wanted to make. I’m largely influenced by hip-hop. I’ve grown up on it. ’90s hip-hop is my bag, and I love a lot of modern stuff nowadays – The Alchemist, Freddy Gibbs – all that stuff. But in terms of R&B, recently, Sly and the Family Stone has been a huge inspiration for us. We also like the classic soul/R&B stuff –Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye… (he gestures to Nick) you should see his playlists, it’s like, ridiculous!” Jumping on this point, Nick goes on to say, “I’ve kind of known old school blues and soul, kind of on the outskirts, my whole life. But then, once we moved to Nashville, I think, I started really digging into the history of these groups, and who played on them, like James Jamerson on the Motown stuff. I just got super intrigued on how these songs were made, and the passion behind these songs, because it’s just so well-crafted. I started collecting vinyl and 45s too, and that’s how I’ve dug into 60s soul.”
Their influences might be traditional, but their working and writing styles employ a hybrid of old and new techniques. Blake relates how the duo builds their tracks, saying, “We use an online service called Splice, which has a drum library, which will inspire the initial point of the song. Nick will often build chords around that, and we’ll have some level of a composition, at least within the first 30 minutes to an hour. Then, I’ll come in, kind of figure out where the composition is laying, and begin to part-write, and figure out how we can build depth, emotion, and ‘what don’t we need?’. Sometimes, you need less than what you think you need. We’ve talked about this previously, but songwriting is often building a puzzle and you’ve got to find out where the pieces lay. Once the pieces are laid, you can figure out how to finish it.” Further to this, Nick asserts that, “Probably one of the most fun parts about this gig is going into a writing session, not knowing what’s going to be created that day. Even, earlier in the week, before we go and write, we’ll hear a new song that we hadn’t heard before, from the 60s or 70s, and it really influences how that session starts. We’ll take it in a whole new direction or just meld genres. It’s a lot of fun!” This is a true collaboration, as both men contribute music and lyrical content. Says Blake, “We’re always bouncing ideas off each other. I think we’re constantly looking for the best possible outcome. Nick will hear something, or I’ll hear something, melody-wise, lyric-wise. We’re building to be the best product.”
In addition to writing and recording, Bird and Byron have also had an active year of touring. Not only were they supporting Ocean Alley on their North American tour, but they have also been headlining shows and playing festival sets. Of the touring life, Blake reports, “It’s been very fun! It’s been a learning process along the way, especially for the Ocean Alley tour. About 4,000 miles plus traveled, definitely the most people we’ve ever played to. I think we know how to do the show and we’re pretty confident in how that is. Tweaking and building the set throughout the run is an important thing for us, to make it hit every night. But I guess the thing that we’ve really been focusing on is the logistical part, as business owners. Just figuring out how to sell merch in a correct and quick way, and make sure everything’s planned around the actual shows, in terms of advancing, travel, hotel, stuff like that. We’ve been doing it like this for six years, so we know how everybody operates in the band. We know where everybody’s strengths are, so we can activate those strengths within our members, to make everything as smooth as possible.” Nick concurs, adding, “Yeah, the benefit of playing with these guys more consistently is, they’ll even bring fresh ideas to the songs that we played a ton of times. So, it’s like we’ll be in show number six of the nine that we did and (someone suggests) ‘Oh, what if we try this?’ and it brings a whole new flavour to the song that we haven’t tried before. That’s what was so fun about doing nine shows with Ocean Alley. We really got to spread our wings and be more creative about how we make these sets and come in more prepared with the merch. We just tried to make the most of the time on the road. It was a lot of fun.” Picking up on the business side of things, Blake continues, “We’ve worked with people before, and we just found that we operate the business – logistical, merch and stuff – on our own, and touring, that’s a group effort. I think sometimes it comes into the issue of like ‘too many hats.’ But we figure out how to do this stuff on our own and keep it all tight.”
When asked if it is different to compartmentalize the business from the musical artistry of Bird and Byron, Blake admits that “it’s kind of strange, for me at least, and for Nick, too. For example, when we played Toronto. We’ll play 45 minutes, a great set. Then, within three minutes of getting offstage, I’m at the merch table, and it’s like a completely different mind set. You know, I’m still that person, but it’s like you’ve got to flip a switch…” Interjecting, Nick supports his partner’s comment, saying, “You’re adding something new to your thought process. You’re like, ‘I was onstage playing to everyone’, but now you’ve got to still have that persona/mindset, but also like, ‘I’ve got to run our business now. But, yeah, doing nine shows with each other, I feel like we were getting into a groove of getting to the venue, sound checking, making sure we had everything, putting on a great show, and now we’re rockin’ and rollin’ at the merch table and meeting everyone.”
The musical roadshow continues this fall with a number of U.S. dates, presenting both full-band, and duo shows. Blake reports, “We’re doing four dates just as a duo. That’s how this project started. Nick’ll sling his guitar and I’ll do some singin’. We’ll play four shows in some smaller rooms through the south. We’ll be back with the full band for a total of seven to eight shows, through the end of November and December.”
With solid plans for their music and their careers, the question of career trajectory arises in our conversation, particularly in the way that many bands mark achievements and career steps as rungs on a ladder. Drawing on his and Nick’s years on the ball diamond as children together, Blake recounts, “I had a conversation with my dad, and we were translating that same idea into baseball. In American baseball, there’s Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A baseball, and then you’re in the Majors. I was like, ‘Wow, this Ocean Alley tour, this feels like Triple-A baseball, like we’re supporting a major artist.’ And he was like, ‘You’re probably Double-A.’. But it’s kind of like that, we feel like we’re obviously professionals in what we’re doing, but to make it into that kind of ‘Majors’ rung, we would like to get to the point where we are doing what Ocean Alley is doing, and showing up in Toronto and selling like, 3000 tickets.” Fully in agreement, Nick states, “Yeah, and these shows just prove that we’re getting closer and closer. We’re getting more experience each time we go out on the road, meeting more people, and building a bigger family of fans. The time will come, it’s just slowly climbing that ladder. Knocking off a new objective and making it.”
Looking at their career thus far, Blake sums things up by saying , “I think if we can connect emotionally with anybody in terms of just sonic, sound, that is a mark on our artistry. It’s just like, you know, we played an acoustic show here, in Nashville, a couple of months ago, and we had people crying in the crowd when we were doing songs. And we were just like, ‘Okay we’re obviously doing something to them in a way that isn’t just like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m listening to this music passively’. We’re affecting these people and they’re obviously thinking about these songs in ways that we might not necessarily go into it thinking about.” Totally on the same page as his bandmate, Nick asserts, “I think that being able to connect to music is such an important part of being human. I feel like multiple times on this tour, people have come up and said, ‘Hey, this is my first show, in general. Just seeing you guys as our first show is just such a blessing’, because we were able to put on a good show, and connect with them. I just think that’s so cool because the thought of being someone’s first live musical experience, to be able to deliver that message, and that feeling and emotion live, is just such an honour. To be able to do this as we’re trying to make it a full-time living, and being able to go to a new city, and connect with somebody in that way is so cool.”
Bird and Byron are clearly an act on their way up: partners in full control of their business and their art. Spill readers should definitely check out their recordings, and if they’re lucky enough, should catch them live.
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Photo Credits: José Nava
