Blake Bergere was a tiny newborn – 4 pounds, 9 ounces, bright red and, according to his mother, looking something like a baby robin.
Years later, sitting over dinner at a Rusty Bucket restaurant in Columbus, that family story gave Bergere the stage name he would eventually carry on to one of television’s biggest stages: Bird.
His best friend, Nick Lorenz, needed a name to match.
Lorenz had been studying James Dean while in college in Los Angeles and remembered the actor’s middle name: Byron. It sounded good next to Bird. The alliteration worked.
And Bird and Byron were born.
The indie rock duo will return to NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” on Aug. 11 during the show’s callback round after earning four “yes” votes in their audition, but for Bergere and Lorenz, the television exposure isn’t the beginning of their story.
It’s simply introducing millions of viewers to a tale that has been unfolding for years.
Before Bird and Byron, they were Blake and Nick
Bergere and Lorenz have known each other since they were about 7 years old.
Both moved to New Albany around the same time, went to school together and played T-ball and recreational football before their musical interests took them down different paths.
Bergere joined choir in high school. Lorenz played in the orchestra.
Eventually, after college, those separate interests led them back to each other.
They launched Bird and Byron while living in Los Angeles, recording their first song inside what they describe as a shoe box-sized closet.
They were preparing to release it in March 2020.
Then COVID-19 shut down nearly everything.
“We were just about to start touring and doing live shows,” Bergere said. “We were not sure how everything was gonna happen.”
The two returned to Ohio and began working out of Lorenz’s childhood bedroom in Columbus.
For musicians whose business depended on performing live, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
“We started a business and… the world was ending around us,” Lorenz said.
At one point in early 2021, Bergere stepped away from the project for about a month.
“I was like, ‘I need to figure out what we’re doing,'” he said.
The answer arrived through social media.
Bird and Byron launched a series called “One Take Tuesday” on social media, posting stripped-down performances online while much of the world remained isolated.
One performance went viral, drawing attention from artists including Noah Kahan and helping launch the duo into the next phase of their career.
“That really helped us survive as artists and creatives and get through that tough period of COVID-19,” Bergere said.
Why Columbus still matters to Bird and Byron
Although Bird and Byron are now based in Nashville, Columbus remains at the center of how they describe themselves.
It’s where they grew up. It’s where they rebuilt their career during the pandemic. And it’s where they first realized musicians from central Ohio could dream much bigger.
The pair remembers watching Twenty One Pilots perform at their high school around 2011, years before the Columbus band was filling arenas around the world.
“There’s so much tradition musically, but just culturally within the city, and being able to add to that is amazing,” Lorenz said.
For them, Twenty One Pilots became proof that artists from Columbus didn’t have to leave their hometown identity behind to find success.
“It’s just crazy that people can come from Columbus and… sell out stadiums in Japan,” Lorenz said.
Bird and Byron have built their own history on local stages.
Their first show was at Woodlands Tavern. Their second was at The Basement. Bergere also spent years performing at Pure Roots Boutique in Westerville before the duo began touring nationally.
Now they have another hometown milestone in sight.
Bird and Byron are scheduled to perform Dec. 11 at A&R Music Bar. If ticket sales are strong enough, the show could be upgraded to Newport Music Hall – a venue the pair has dreamed of headlining since they were kids.
“It’s just like a dream venue for us to play [at] as Columbus natives,” Lorenz said.
While “America’s Got Talent” has introduced Bird and Byron to millions of viewers, the duo said the show’s biggest value has been introducing those viewers to music they had already spent years creating.
Since their audition aired, they’ve completed two tours and have already begun seeing television viewers become concertgoers.
At a recent show in San Diego, several families traveled from Tijuana, Mexico, after discovering the band on “America’s Got Talent.”
For Bergere, stepping onto the “AGT” stage also carried personal meaning.
His mother introduced him to the show years ago, and the family watched together faithfully, often trying to predict which acts would make the finals.
Standing before judges they had spent years watching from their living room felt surreal.
But television isn’t the finish line.
Their goal is turning viewers into listeners, listeners into concertgoers and, eventually, lifelong fans.
“The passion that we put into the project is real and authentic,” Bergere said. “Making those new fans feel like family… we want to take that as far around the country and the world as we can.”
The duo has also tried to make that growing platform meaningful beyond music. Around their “AGT” audition, they donated proceeds to the Kids Mental Health Foundation at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and said they plan to continue supporting the organization throughout their journey.
How do two best friends survive being in a band together?
For all the music, touring and career planning, Bird and Byron is still a partnership between two friends who have known each other for nearly two decades.
That means long hours together – in recording studios, hotel rooms, airports and tour vans.
Their secret?
“Space,” Lorenz said.
Bergere laughed in agreement.
“You need to miss each other,” Lorenz added.
Outside the band, the friendship looks much like it did before national tours and television appearances.
They search for new restaurants, browse record stores, hunt for vintage clothing and explore cities together while on the road.
Their songwriting process is equally collaborative.
Usually it begins with a laptop, speakers and an audio interface before Lorenz starts building chords and melodies and the two shape the song together.
Sometimes inspiration takes hours. Sometimes it takes only minutes.
Their song “Life Is a Bore” came together in about 10 minutes inside Lorenz’s childhood bedroom in Ohio. After another stretch away from writing, they returned to their Nashville studio and quickly wrote what became “Fly.”
“It’s finding the time to step away from writing for a little bit and then coming back,” Bergere said.
Looking beyond the spotlight
Ask Bird and Byron what success looks like five years from now and they don’t talk about television.
They talk about theaters filled with people singing along.
They talk about reaching cities they’ve never played in before, continuing to write songs together and building the kind of career they’ve admired in bands like The Black Keys and Alabama Shakes.
Whether that journey leads them from A&R Music Bar to Newport Music Hall, or from “America’s Got Talent” to even bigger stages beyond, the destination isn’t what seems to motivate them most.
The foundation was built long before television cameras arrived.
It started with two boys who met in elementary school, spent decades becoming best friends and eventually discovered they could build something together that connected with people far beyond the neighborhoods where it began.
Trending reporter Amani Bayo can be reached at abayo@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Bird and Byron journey from childhood friends to a national stage
Reporting by Amani Bayo, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Amani Bayo, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
