The Wood Thrush is a bird I first learned about doing research for new species to do songs of, only to learn a had a photograph of this little fellow in my kitchen for the past few years!
The wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) is a North American passerine bird in the family Turdidae.
Featuring illustration by Aubrey Postier and sound recorded by Wil Hershberger
My latest song samples the beautiful Northern Cardinal! I love these bright red friends and their unique song.
Featuring artwork by Aubrey Postier and sounds recorded by Jay McGowan and Wil Hershberger
My new song is a spooky beat in F minor featuring the haunting hoots of the Great Horned Owl. Recorded by William R. Fish and licensed by the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
You can stream Great Horned Owl on all major music platforms
Here’s a cute little video I made for the song on my Instagram, and if you scroll below you can hear the original audio I sampled for the song.
Here’s the source audio, recorded by WIlliam R. Fish in 1954, from the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library
Owl illustration by Aubrey Postier. Thanks Aubrey!
The thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), also known as the sprosser, is a small passerine bird. It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in forests in Europe and the Palearctic and overwintering in Africa (from Wikipedia)
why did I select this bird to remix? i’m not sure to be honest… probably because of their beautiful call ~
it had been some time since I produced the last bird boy song, Eastern Phoebe, and my life had changed a lot… I had become a dad!
my son was born in august and life has been a rollercoaster ~ I had started on a new track featuring a Great Horned Owl, but it was still fairly rough. I came across the sound for the Thrush Nightingale and I thought it was so musical and peaceful so I decided to start working on the track.
I produced the drums on my MPC One and sampled and mixed on Ableton Live. I had been listening to a lot of Daft Punk around this time, so there is a bit of a synthy quality to the Nightingale’s song.
Nightingales are the DJs of the forest, I suppose!
Sound Recordist ~ Patrik Åberg
Illustrator ~ Aubrey Postier
The Eastern Phoebe is a plump little bird found in pastures and around farmland. They have a distinct “Fee-bee” call, so you know it’s a Phoebe!
I was inspired to make this track while I was vacationing out by some farmland. I found a nice recording on the Merlin Bird ID app, and reached out to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to clear the sample ~
I wanted Eastern Phoebe to be a return to form for Bird Boy, as it was the first new beat I had made in 2022. I went back into the Eurasian Widgeon project file and got the Rhodes keyboard sound I used for the chords and the “glass piano” heard playing arpeggios.
This was also the first track I completely arranged without a computer on the MPC, which was very exciting. I did end up taking the project into Ableton Live to mix and master, tho ~ the best of both worlds.
Sound Recordist ~ Wil Hershberger
Sound Recordist ~ William W. H. Gunn
Illustrator ~ Aubrey Positer
chicka dee-dee-dee ~
that’s the unmistakable sound of the black-capped chickadee, a hearty little borb that knows its way around the woods all year ’round ~
Black-capped chickadee came to be on a trip to the family farm ~ they have so many Black-capped Chickadees out there and they’re such a fun bird.
I made this beat on my MPC One running in standalone mode. That means no computer! Black-capped chickadee is also played as a brisk 140 beats-per-minute, and features a laid back club beat I thought the chickadees might like!
here’s a listen to the original sample from the Macaulay Library at Cornell University, an incredible resource of bird information. So happy to be working with them to clear samples like this for my beats ~!
Recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller ~ 31 May 1992
Illustration by Aubrey Postier
The noble, common robin (Turdus migratorius) one of my favorite birds. They’re all around Philadelphia, and I love seeing them in great numbers at the change of the seasons.
Illustration by Aubrey Postier
Bird Boy is an exploration of nature, chill beats created with bird calls. I met sound recordist Paul Marvin who had made some absolutely beautiful recordings of the Baltimore Oriole.
This composition surrounds the notes the Oriole naturally sings, in its natural rhythm. I tried to do as little audio manipulation as possible for this one, so the Oriole’s call sounds just as you would hear it in the wild.
I live in Philadelphia and have lots of friends in Baltimore, so this local bird has a bit of a personal connection. Thanks for listen, and I hope you enjoy ~
Illustrator: Aubrey Postier
Sound Recordist: Paul Marvin
what a funny little duck. the Eurasian Widgeon inspired the creation of Bird Boy, with its delightful call. First heard at Mývatn Lake while traveling in Iceland.
Eurasian Wigeon (Mareca penelope) recorded by Patrik Åberg at Mývatn Lake, Iceland. Used with permission.
Artwork by Aubrey Postier
