Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Tribune
December 13, 2022
Of his latest album, “Lagoon,” Bird Streets described it as a travelogue of sorts. “I wrote a lot (of the songs) during my long daily walks around Brooklyn,” said the songwriter/musician, whose real name is John Brodeur. “Sometimes they take months or years to finish, so they are inevitably worked on in more than one physical place. While the road isn’t always the best place to start writing songs, I’ve found it to be a good place to finish them.” Brodeur, 46, said he will spend the upcoming holidays in Los Angeles where “there’s a good chance I’ll be celebrating the new record with a performance while I’m there.”
Q: Besides Brooklyn, where are some other places you worked on this album?
A: I think the unique vibes of Memphis, Nashville, New York and Los Angeles all come through on this record, not to mention the United Kingdom, thanks to a stellar contribution from Ed Harcourt. That’s part of what gives this album such an expansive feel – not just the amount and quality of the players involved, but the actual geographical locations where the music was produced.
Q: Do you remember one of the first places that you played a show?
A: The first properly billed show was at a place called Half Moon Cafe in downtown Albany. I believe we got paid in sandwiches. The band didn’t last long. Our demo went nowhere.
Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?
A: My partner and I just returned from a few weeks in London and we had a wonderful time. One thing London has that nowhere else does — at least for now — is the ABBA Voyage concert … which is essentially a hologram show. I don’t want to say too much about it, just that no matter what you expect, it’s better.
Q: What was the first trip you took as a child?
A: I grew up middle class in Upstate New York. My parents both worked full time, so we didn’t take a lot of big vacations. The trips I remember from childhood were the annual or biannual drives to visit my grandparents in Niagara Falls. Endless hours in the backseat, looking for anything to break up the bleary, gray monotony of Interstate 90. Or the yearly shuffle off to one beach-adjacent New England town or another, for just enough time to get a quality summer burn before shuffling back into the family van three days later. I appreciate the beach a lot more these days. I really couldn’t be bothered with it back then. My feelings on Interstate 90 have not changed one bit.
Q: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?
A: Keep your passport on you at all times and pack the toothbrush in your carry-on.
Q: Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A: Where do I begin? I’ve actually done very little traveling abroad. I suppose I always thought music would take me around the world, but things haven’t quite worked out that way. So there are a lot of boxes left to tick. Japan, Paris, Costa Rica, Iceland — I hear they have lots of lagoons — Cuba. … Buy me a ticket anywhere and I’ll start packing.
Q: When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A: Believe it or not, I carry my breakfast cereal with me almost every time I travel. It’s a granola concoction I make every day with a bunch of seeds and super foods and whatnot. It’s been my little morning ritual ever since I went vegan about six years ago. I suppose I’m a creature of habit. Plus, I can’t always find a vegan-friendly breakfast place on the road, though it’s a lot easier than it used to be.
Q: What is your guilty pleasure when you’re on the road?
A: Record stores! That’s also my guilty pleasure at home, to be honest. I’ve been known to fill an entire suitcase with LPs over the course of a tour or long trip.
Q: What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?
A: The first time I played in Los Angeles, my band and I took a day trip down to Tijuana which went predictably off the rails. But I should probably save that story for the book.
© 2022 JAE-HA KIM
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