Sparkbird is the project of non-binary queer singer-songwriter Stephan Nance. Their music has been featured by the National Audubon Society, Birding Magazine, Homoground, and Rock the Pigeon. Their song “Metropolis of Eden” won 2nd place in Yishan Wong’s 2021 Solarpunk Art Contest. Stephan is a 2021 Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow, a 2022 Tin House YA Workshop alum, a 2023 Oregon Literary Fellow, a 2023 We Need Diverse Books mentee under H.E. Edgmon.
Since 2017, Sparkbird has performed globally, with three tours of Japan and others in the UK, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Italy. Their shows regularly warm the hearts of Sofar Sounds audiences across the U.S.
In 2021, Sparkbird released their richly textured, apocalyptic single “Minor Holiday,” featuring musicians Mathias Kunzli (Regina Spektor, Lauryn Hill), Yoed Nir (Regina Spektor, Rufous Wainwright), Jeni Magana (Mitski), Lisa Parrott (Dave Brubeck), and Greta Gertler (The Universal Thump). The song came into being as the 2020 bushfires in Australia were nearing containment, but the threat of COVID-19 was suddenly looming. It captures the growing numbness of a bystander to a series of global catastrophes.
Sparkbird’s most recent single, “Silent Film,” earned praise for its “slice-of-life aesthetic… reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens and Joni Mitchell” (Good Music Radar).
Stephan lives in Portland, Oregon, with their partner Adam, a 15-year-old Senegal parrot named Georgie, and a 44-year-old Yellow-naped parrot named Fred. Stephan is currently working on their next album and a young adult novel.
