In the winter of 2004 Brandon Bethancourt dropped out of art school in New Mexico and headed up to Alaska. Shielded from the elements by a tiny cabin, and from boredom by his laptop, he spent this period of isolation recording music. This experience propelled him on a quest to the Balkans, and more recently on to Berlin where he soaks up the local musical culture and conjures up songs that fuse orchestral elements with electronica. Hey! Manchester catches up with Brandon ahead of Alaska in Winter’s show on 22 October.

Let’s start with the name: did you go up to Alaska specifically to record music?

No, not at all. I didn’t plan to do any recordings while in Alaska, but after a while I just got the itch and managed to borrow enough stuff to get some recordings done.

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Here‘s Andrew Bird performing unplugged – and unstaged – in Paris. It’s part of La Blogotheque‘s Concert a Emporter (aka Take Away Shows) series, which asks musicians to strip their songs down and wander the streets playing them busker style.

Bird’s are some of my favourites videos on there, though I’d recommend that you check out Okkervil River’s Will Sheff being a hippy, Jens Lekman taking advantage of a gymnasium’s echo, Casiotone For the Painfully Alone in a phonebooth, Grizzly Bear in the bath, Sufjan Stevens on a windy rooftop, Dirty Projectors freaking people out, Of Montreal just being themselves, Beirut being very Gallic, Final Fantasy being elven and Herman Dune simply being the best.

Searching the archive soon becomes highly addictive… like YouTube for alternative music fans. And if after that lot you still need more, check out London’s Black Cab Sessions for a distinctly British take on things.

Andrew Bird plays at Academy 3 again on 13 May. Don’t miss him.