VIA PRESS RELEASE | With the announcement of an expansive and revelatory new box set, Andrew Bird celebrates 20 years of the album that cemented his enigmatic style into the indie music canon, shaping the sounds of an era and inspiring decades of imitation: The Mysterious Production of Eggs.
Arriving physically and digitally on February 27th, on his own Wegawam Music Co. (via Secretly Distribution), the forthcoming collection features the original release of the record alongside two LPs of previously unheard material, including a one-to-one playthrough of demos, live takes, and alternate versions of each of the album’s songs, and a third LP of both unearthed rarities and a selection of highlights that have been rearranged and performed live alongside the orchestra of Nu Deco Ensemble.
With all-new artwork created by original cover artist and longtime collaborator, Jay Ryan, the limited edition 3LP vinyl set also includes a 54-page book of unseen photographs and special surprises, as well as a reflective essay written by Andrew Bird, and an exclusive piece from Anders Lindall, examining the unexpected and fascinating five years that it took Bird and his collaborators to finally get this album right.
As Andrew Bird explains in the box set’s accompanying story, the lessons learned from creating The Mysterious Production of Eggs were, “(1) Failure can be part of the process. (2) Don’t automatically do whatever worked the last time or follow through with the plan just because it’s ‘the plan’. Travel light and be adaptable.”
While The Mysterious Production of Eggs arrived in 2005, crystallizing the ingenious live-looping, poetic whimsy, whistling melodies and emotional resonance that would inform the 17 albums and hundreds of concerts that Andrew Bird has crafted since, the record’s genesis dates back to 2000.
Scrapped three different times, the history of Eggs is difficult to untangle, but it begins in a family barn in Western Illinois, filled with hay and raccoons, heated by a Norwegian stove, and surrounded by chickens and one large peacock that appeared at dusk. After converting it into a recording studio, Bird brought in musicians like New Orleans’ Mike “Nappy” Napolitano, Pat Sansone (now of Wilco) on bass and guitar, and Kevin O’Donnell on drums to make what he thought would be The Mysterious Production of Eggs, but the outcome was too dense and overstuffed.
He decamped to Nashville to track Weather Systems and take another attempt at Eggs in 2001—mixing, mastering, and throwing it into the trash bin for a second time. In 2003, Bird started chipping away again at Wall to Wall Recordings in downtown Chicago, but then was invited to meet with producer Tony Berg in Los Angeles, where he ended up finishing the record in 2004, playing everything on the album but drums, and tracking it all alone in Berg’s backyard studio over the course of a month. Exploring childhood, creativity and science with wit, precision and ambition, the resulting music is as refreshing and definitive now as it was in 2005.
“Those years at the barn (2002–2005) were a creative bender. Immersed in nature with few distractions there was time to indulge every impulse without much feedback (for better or worse) from my Chicago community. This isn’t working. Scrap it and don’t look back. Don’t look back, until now, of course. I’ve said I’m reluctant about exhuming this period as I’m writing and recording my 19th album as we speak. It has had its revelations and due to the exhaustive efforts, we dug up some really cool stuff from the cutting room floor. Anyway, looking back can be painful but in this case it’s worth it, says Andrew.
This fall, The Mysterious Production of Eggs’ 20th Anniversary Box Set will be accompanied by an interactive website featuring archival video footage, photos, documents, art and more, as well as special events and collaborations to be announced.
Andrew Bird begins an anniversary tour celebrating The Mysterious Production of Eggs, where he will perform the album in full with some of the world’s foremost symphony orchestras. Stops include Atlanta, Austin, Portland, Seattle and Denver, with eight additional shows across the East Coast and Midwest just announced today, and slated for spring 2026. In between the two legs, Bird returns to Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church for his annual run of Gezelligheid holiday shows this December.
