Andrew Bird is back with a new album called Are You Serious? — and he's once again approaching his music in a different way. Bird graduated from Northwestern University in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in violin performance, played swing violin with the Squirrel Nut Zippers for a moment, and then developed his tape-looped playing style on albums like his breakthrough 2003 solo album, Weather Systems. (Oh, and he became a world-class whistler.)

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