JT Nero and Allison Russell have been performing together as Birds of Chicago since 2012. But their musical and personal relationship stretches back almost a decade before that.
As Nero tells the story, he and Russell “sort of had mutual friends in music … and became mutual fans (of each other) in the mid-2000s.” Back then, Nero was living in Chicago and had just started a new band, JT and the Clouds, and Russell was finding success in the Vancouver-based roots band Po’ Girl.
When Po’ Girl crossed the border for their first U.S. tour, they met up with JT and the Clouds. The two bands became friends and frequent collaborators. Nero toured with Po’ Girl as a solo act, and each night, Russell would come out and sing more and more songs with him during his set.
“Now that I look back, obviously, it was headed this way, but we didn’t get ourselves to a place where we could put things aside and focus on this project until 2012,” he said.
Nero began writing songs specifically for Russell. “I felt like I was lucky to be around this singer … who was realizing the full scope of what she could do,” he said. The two began recording albums as Birds of Chicago, with Nero’s former bandmates joining the project. Nero and Russell married soon after and their daughter, Ida, was born in 2014.
The band is set to release their latest album, “Real Midnight,” in February. Their latest stop is Portsmouth, where they’ll perform at Birdseye Lounge on Jan. 20. The Sound caught up with Nero by phone to talk about parenting on the road, his non-manifesto manifesto, and Birds of Chicago’s favorite birds.
Your new album, “Real Midnight,” comes out next month. What can listeners expect?
When I think about that time and that record, the suite of songs produced during what in most ways was the happiest year of my life and our lives — our daughter was born — that managed to produce the most somber, sad songs I’ve ever put together. … The obvious answer is that when you experience love and joy in that kind of higher octane way … of course, that elevates the dark side too … and you’re just that much more aware of the fragility and impermanence of everything. … I’ve discovered my happiest moments as an artist and writer are the easiest moments to wade in darker waters, because you’ve got access to it in a different way.
(The album) came together because I feel like, once that was kind of clear in my mind, it seemed so obviously a record that (producer) Joe (Henry) and I should produce. He knows his light and his shadow and he’s really good with those melancholy spaces, and through a lucky set of circumstances, we were able to grab him for the project. It was very fortuitous.
There’s a strong current of gospel and soul, among other sounds, in your music. How did you and Allison develop the band’s style?
The gospel thing is huge — it’s huge in my past and I have a lot of gospel musicians who are friends. So, I’m always careful because I don’t want to claim the gospel mantle because I’m not coming to it from an actual gospel place. To me, the thing in gospel that I always come back to is the rawness of it and the truly kind of transformative feeling that you get. … On a more basic level, there’s no doubt that it is spiritual music of a sort; we’ve definitely had people call it “secular agnostic gospel.” There is a searching going on and it always, to me, comes back to that basic thing: The music, and the experience of writing these songs, and also the experiences of playing them directly for people kind of opens up some channels between humans unlike any other thing I’ve come across.
Is that what inspires and drives you as a songwriter?
I very adamantly try not to have any sort of manifesto. I’m a big believer in accessing the macro through the micro, just try to catch small human moments. They’re butterflies in a jar — you’re trying to reflect those in a real and honest way. That’s the deal. The thing I like about songwriting as opposed to almost anything else, I love the changeability of it. You can write and the moment you may be catching on any one day might be a pretty miserable one, so you bottle that … and then there’s the next tune where there’s any amount of sun rays poking through. I feel like that’s the only duty. There’s not an overarching message. When you are just being honest to what’s happening in any given moment, that’s when you catch the stuff I think a lot of people can relate to. (And) I do like the idea of poetry as a populist tool. It’s something to connect with people and not sort of a self-referential or inward exercise, spiritually or intellectually. You want to put these words in folks’ mouths to sing, and you want it to feel good when they’re singing them.
That sounds like a really good manifesto, actually.
(laughs) It’s sort of a manifesto, but not one I’d be beholden to. It’s a manifesto of openness.
You bring Ida on tour with you. How do you balance touring and having a family?
From Ida’s perspective it’s literally all she’s ever known. We left for the Netherlands when she was four weeks old. It seems crazy, but in retrospect, that was the easiest tour we’ve ever been on with her; she slept the whole time. … Now that she’s fast on her feet and fast with her opinions and definitely in the toddler stage, it will probably be the most challenging because she’s got a lot of energy to burn. In some ways, I think she’s helped us tour a lot smarter. We’re doing things we should’ve realized to do before we had a baby — build in extra time for trips or making time to stop at a park or go to a library.
Does the band have an official favorite bird?
The peregrine falcon, which is the official Chicago city bird. Ali would tell you sparrow; she’s a big sparrow lover. But I’ve got to go with the big sweet bird of prey. We played a show for a fellow … in Columbia, Missouri, and it turned out he had been some high priest in the Audubon Society in Chicago for their national chapter. He was the one who asked about the peregrine being the official city bird, and I was embarrassed to say I didn’t know that. … He gave us a stuffed peregrine for Ida and got us hip to that fact. We don’t skimp on the bird … imagery in our tunes. They always find their way in.
Birds of Chicago perform Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. at Birdseye Lounge, 41 Vaughan Mall, Portsmouth. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 day of show, available at birdseyelounge.com.
