Who is Sparkbird?
Photo by Kenji Gamou at concert in Shunan, Yamaguchi-ken, Japan.
Sparkbird is the project of singer-songwriter Stephan Nance (they/them). Their music has been featured by Obscure Sound, Good Music Radar, Rock the Pigeon, Homoground, the National Audubon Society, and Birding Magazine. Their breakout single "November," described as "a masterpiece of contemporary musical artistry" by Sinusoidal Music, surpassed 1 million streams on Spotify three months after its release.
Sparkbird's performance history spans three tours of Japan and others in the UK, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Italy. Their intimate concerts have warmed the hearts of Sofar Sounds audiences across the U.S.
Sparkbird’s songwriting has earned praise for its “slice-of-life aesthetic… reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens and Joni Mitchell” (Good Music Radar). For their fiction, Stephan is a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, 2022 Tin House YA alum, 2023 Oregon Literary Fellow, and 2023 We Need Diverse Books mentee.
Stephan lives in Portland, Oregon, with their partner Adam, a 16-year-old Senegal parrot named Georgie, and a 45-year-old Yellow-naped parrot named Fred. Stephan is currently working on their next album and a young adult novel.