Musician Andrew Bird's behind-the-scenes look at his creative process (from an article in the NY TIMES)
It’s kind of a racket. When I step onstage I feel myself adopting that comedian’s posture, a shrug of the shoulders that says, “I don’t know, folks. We’re all just puzzling through it together. I’m not going to pretend to have the answers but here’s what I’ve seen."
To emerge from creative hibernation with my perfect oeuvre and
worldview fully realized feels stifling and boring. And while I’m
anything but an exhibitionist I have this perverse impulse to introduce
half-written songs and invite the trouble that it might bring. Maybe I’m
saying to my former teachers, “Look, by your standards I’m failing, but
it feels great.” But mostly it’s that I just prefer a fluid questioning
present to a fixed past.