There’s a small sort of wonder that sparks when the beauty of the natural world is captured by one of our senses. When there’s thunder, we wish to see the zap of lightning; when a delicate birdsong wafts through the air, we search for the elusive artist caught in flight. On his debut single “Like a Bird,” Spencer Hoffman sings about what the ears catch and the eyes miss.
Written while traveling across the Pacific coast before moving to Los Angeles, Hoffman takes inspiration from country folk musicians Roger Miller and Guy Clark. Lyrically, “Like a Bird” was inspired by the Romantic English poet Percey Bysshe Shelley and his poem “To a Skylark.” “In the poem,” Hoffman explains, “he pines to be able to sing with such natural joy as a skylark, which flies so high it is heard but not seen. I was listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell and my friend Joules (Sea of Bees) and thinking that they get close to singing in that effortlessly untethered way. Singing is a joyful act, but also one of mourning and sometimes desperation. I wonder if it is the same for birds.”
Listen to “Like a Bird” below.
