Head Like A Nest, by Sparkbird

Head Like A Nest

by Sparkbird

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD version of the album Head Like A Nest, with lyric insert.
I will sign the CD to you or someone else, or just with my name, or not at all, as you desire! If you want me to sign it to someone in particular, just send me a note with the order or at hello [at] sparkbirdmusic [dot] com.

Includes unlimited streaming of Head Like A Nest via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
PRE-ORDER (BEGINS SHIPPING FEBRUARY 2026)
Double vinyl version of the album Head Like A Nest. Pressed on black vinyl with a double gatefold jacket and insert.
I will sign the album to you or someone else, or just with my name, or not at all, as you desire! If you want me to sign it to someone in particular, just send me a note with the order or at hello [at] sparkbirdmusic [dot] com.

Side A
1. Sparkbird
2. November
3. After the Ball
4. Arboretum

Side B
1. Mayday!
2. Sun Goes Dark
3. Envy

Side C
1. Grievances
2. Wooden
3. What A Lark!

Side D
1. Atlantisia
2. The Light That Comes Through
3. Rebreather

Includes unlimited streaming of Head Like A Nest via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
... more

shipping out on or around February 1, 2026

Purchasable with gift card

$40 USD or more

1.	Sparkbird 02:52	lyrics	buy track
Sparks fly every time I Identify a species I have hitherto never Seen in the field, seen in the feather Sparkbird, destiny drew us together Every smile line on my face can be retraced Down to the split second Down to the split place Is it magical thinking Or is it magical realism? Or is it neither here nor there? Every time I check my wrist It's another brand new freckle Past another brand new hair I'm growing up, up, up Against my will, will Will you finally resurrect The time I've killed? Will you finally resurrect The time I've killed, killed, killed? Sparks fly every time I visit this park I envision the phantom Of a giddy little cartoon me Jittering on the electrifying Cusp of discovery Before and after the storm All I wanted was to be seen And to see Some signs of a world still Turning, turning, turning Some signs of a world still Forming, forming, forming Rebirth of a dream still Burning, burning, burning Is it magical thinking Or is it magical realism? Or is it neither here nor there? Every time I check my wrist It's another brand new freckle Past another brand new hair I'm growing up, up, up Against my will, will Will you finally resurrect The time I've killed? Will you finally resurrect The time I've killed, killed, killed? Sparkbird Sparkbird
2.	November 04:02	lyrics	buy track
One small sound, one small word In tongues all over the world I said it I said it One small word I said it, I didn't I said it, I didn't Tongues all over Can't pick them out Can't press them in I'll never hide my scars Can't pick them out Can't press them in I'll never hide my scars I'll never hide my scars One small sound, one small sight One unsheathed knife must glint In an alternate timeline's light One rust-ridden blade juts out Of a friendly moonstruck shape To tear, tear terribly, terribly, tear, tear terribly The delicate crepe of night Familiarity breeds indifference Familiarity breeds discontent Familiarity breeds indifference Familiarity breeds discontent My other time machine: A pungent, putrid brownish green November smile Blandishing my two-timing door One small sound, one small bite, one tomial tooth One Loggerhead Shrike must skewer My invertebrate doppelgänger On barbed wire in a parallel universe My tongue parallelly bleeds One small drop In a monthful of blood In tongues all over the world I said it, I didn't It doesn't matter What I said or didn't Admit it You were never going to get it I was always gonna get it Can't pick them out Can't press them in I'll never hide my scars Can't pick them out Can't press them in I'll never hide my Familiarity breeds Familiarity breeds Not only is it thicker, blood is stickier than water Maybe that's relevant somehow Can I explode now?
3.	After the Ball 03:11	lyrics	buy track
After the ball We all three of us Two of a feather and One superfluous Retire to and from Rooms and careers Respectively Two electively To conspire against one Effectively Partners in crime Part-time extortionist Property owners and Out-of-proportionist mimes lament The call to present In a top-heavy tent that they lent But don't rent out for money yet Sorry for trying to get in the act I thought a performance was what y'all expected Turns out I'm more sideshow than Cirque du Soleil But I value grit over fancy tricks anyway Wine, dine, wind down another evening Entertaining and complaining I stay dry and stall But still plummet into the apron Right after the ball After the ball After the ball They gloat through the glare With the straightest disease The uncaring flakes on the lying trapeze They master the rings Contorting the facts Pickling the punks Thwarting the unwitting Acorn woodpecker Redheaded stepchild Plucked from the granary An indentured clown on the face of it To counter cuts to the greasepaint budget Presumably Sorry for trying to get in the act I thought a performance was what y'all expected Turns out I'm more sideshow than Cirque du Soleil But I value grit over fancy tricks anyway "Unfortunate difficulty balancing chapeaugraphy” I, on the contrary, bet I could Trot the globe's topography without a fall But still plummet into the apron Right after the ball After the ball Sorry for trying to get in the act I thought a performance was what y'all expected Turns out I'm more sideshow than Cirque du Soleil But I value grit over fancy tricks anyway I value grit over fancy tricks anyway
4.	Arboretum 04:33	lyrics	buy track
Toeing a trench In the mulch between Your patch and mine I stubbed myself on a treacherous thistle And I cried out If it were merely A matter of a stray thorny bristle A barrier screen could be laid And I wouldn't miss you We could go the distance Were there more disease resistance On your part Nothing lasts forever When you never let it start Every day I pass this way I expect to find you Waiting for me Beneath the branches Of the buckeye tree Waving a palmetto frond Siphoning orange juice With a barber pole-ish wand Red horsechestnut? Clever disguise I, of course, guessed but Said you'd never naturalize Species zag as seasons zig Tough to keep plants in one place Any chance they get, they diaspore Or else transmutate Traipsing looping garden paths Chasing floodplain Tupelo Tracing roots to Ponderosa Tangling with a Strangler fig Now in an old growth Bald-cypress stand Knees locked in the strand swamp Black- and Yellow-crowned Night Herons Abound in colonies Conferring on me collective memory My eyelids flutter Orbits fill with water Hemlock in my hammock Limbs thrash, I spit and sputter Alligator drags me under Into the solution hole To protect me from Elements of fantasy That thrive in shady reality To offer respite from The demands of gardening To show me Trees are just the fruit Of an even bigger tree
5.	Mayday! 02:38	lyrics	buy track
If the double-row eighteen-cylinder Air-cooled radial engine Is not enough to tip you off Before he slips you off the needle Drops you into unstitched space The wasteland which henceforth Shall be referred to as “your place” The captain lives by the sword And the captain loves by the sword When the captain dies by the sword He'll leave you trapped in the cockpit Crying out "Mayday!" When a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher aerial courtship Nosedives in a blitzkrieg from that Whiskey Delta You can tell the backyard bomber Never helmed a cargo crate He croaks out undoing and doom To the wishful safety net You jeopardized your life to loom The captain lives by the sword And the captain loves by the sword Once you elope with the captain You'll leave on a sordid honeymoon Trapped in the cockpit Crying out "Mayday!" Always the last and never the least Always the fast and never the feast Always the cult of domesticity Always the jolts of electricity Always surpassed and never decreased Always amassed and never released Always the past controls your mind Never the peace you hoped to God you'd finally find The captain lives by the sword And the captain loves by the sword And when he dies by the sword He’ll reward you for your obedience For your countenance has woven in at every turn Even as the back, even as the back Of the hand Even as the back, even as the back Of the hand still burns Even as the back, even as the back Of the hand still burns From the last airstrike
6.	Sun Goes Dark 03:22	lyrics	buy track
Lay me down Among the bones Within my reliquary Dyeballs and chestnuts Dotting a damp yellow yard Eyes open wide But there’s a shroud Across the sky Squirrels scurry by Climbing the trees I never made the time to try Who would have thought Who would have ever thought Summer would pass so fast Day by day I met each arbitrary deadline And maintained The silly charade Of a person who can act their age Now silk-tailed waxwings jingle Bells my mind recalls But ears can’t hear I seek them following paths Of berries dropping everywhere Who would have thought Who would have ever thought Summer would pass so fast One last time Before the mold Crept into figs and quinces I meant to rinse myself In a warm golden light Let it sink deep Into my skin and Fold a blanket round my heart Knowing it’s hard To keep hope alive When the sun goes dark Who would have thought Who would have ever thought Who would have thought Summer would pass so fast
7.	Envy 03:58	lyrics	buy track
Rough time of year Does it get to you too? When it rains and it rains And your shoes never dry I stay inside with my veins full of glue And I stick to a screen 'Til my battery dies I don't need to be rich Only so wealthy as to pay for my food I don't need to be huge Only so big as to ever be noticed Rough time of year Do you sit though it too? With that envy so strong That you can't even move I must confess an embarrassing truth Almost nothing can hurt me Like thinking of you You've got a beautiful home Bestselling novel and effortless style You enchant the people around you They swoon when you show even the hint of a smile Rough time of year Does it darken the doors To the lofty salons Of the luminaries? I wouldn't know I wouldn't know I only know Weeks of god awful overcast days Abstinence from the sun on the skin Drifting deeper and deeper into quarantine Until my own company begins to wear thin
8.	Grievances 03:31	lyrics	buy track
You dropped into my life When I needed you most That should’ve been the first red flag You smiled at me like A parasite in need of a host Slipped a contract out of your bag And when I frowned at the empty quill You jabbed me with a dull syringe I don’t like to be pressured I don’t like to be pushed I don’t like to be pressured I don’t like to be pushed I don’t like to be Pressured pressured pressured pressured Pressured pressured pressured pressured It was an ominous start But you said The money came from your heart And you only wanted The very best for me You wanted me to succeed But in your own particular sense At a particularly painful expense The independence of my body and my mind From the particulars Of all your extracurriculars The fog of obligation grew so thick I couldn’t even breathe I don’t like to be pressured I don’t like to be pushed I don’t like to be pressured I don’t like to be pushed I don’t like to be Pressured pressured pressured pressured Pressured pressured pressured pressured Another twist of the knife Another turn of the screw Another perfect time To thank myself For drumming up the courage To burn bridges with you And for all the shit you talk about me I should think You would be thankful as well But you just can’t seem to let it die So we should probably discuss it When I see you in hell I’ve made a list of the grievances That I never got a chance to air I don’t like to be lied to I don’t like to be tricked I don’t like to be gaslit I don’t like to be groped I don’t like to be blackmailed I don’t like to be stalked I don’t like to be threatened I don’t like to be trapped I don’t like to be Pressured pressured pressured pressured Pressured pressured pressured pressured
9.	Wooden 04:03	lyrics	buy track
Quiet onset of a yawn Old growth onslaught Shallow foresight Dawn dawns on these lawns In a town on a mountain Where the ghosts inhabit poisoned wooden caves And the things they do and the things they say Live in smaller caves And the details of those things Dwell in even smaller caves A truth or two got lost Nary a tooth got flossed On the hearth near the mallard drake In the entertainment center by the sliding door On a spotlit plinth in an empty corridor From one ear to the other In a terracotta pot upon a bookcase In a handcrafted cabinet of spoons When you lose your mind Leave those useless curios behind Always be you You will always be you And I think that that's a good person to be As long as you're doing No harm unto others, Then you're always doing the right thing by me You're always doing the right thing by me But how can I do that When I have no habitat? When they shoot you down To prove that they exist Hold your ground and passively resist Hold your ground and passively resist Why me? Why me? Always bleeding in the brambles Isn't there somebody else I can be? Always be you You will always be you And I think that that's a good person to be As long as you're doing No harm unto others, Then you're always doing the right thing by me You're always doing the right thing by me Sow the seeds of peace I agree But also see the forest for the trees You can spend your whole life Planting annuals dutifully year after year But by no small marigold patch will An Ivory-billed Woodpecker appear You can spend your whole life Planting annuals dutifully year after year But by no small marigold patch will An Ivory-billed Woodpecker appear
10.	What A Lark! 04:52	lyrics	buy track
White wagtail on the shores of the Baltic Sea Sifting through the sand Wagtail, are you wagging at me? Well, who else would it be? Everyone's in Tent City sound asleep Sound asleep Fire burning in your hands And never burning up I could have told you sooner I'm nobody Nobody but me Tremblingly, fiercely me A lark scraping the sky With a gimlet eye fixed on clarity Beautiful clarity Fire burning in my hands And never burning up You bloom into awakeness And emerge into day Actors in a play Amber sun-flecked eyes Surfing the waves Fire burning at both ends And never, ever burning down Or burning skin Down the dunes Grains of time fall slowly And we're all incapable of Giving of giving of giving of giving In
11.	Atlantisia 05:02	lyrics	buy track
I know what you think of me I know what you say I know you’re only here To poke and prod and analyze me And you’re all wide-eyed and wondering Why’d I leave, why’d I stay Why’d I evolve beyond the point Where you could recognize me But I’m not so different And so what if I am Maybe I’ve changed But I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange I saw you from the pebble beach With your spyglass in your hand As you cursed into the spray I am not ashamed to say I prayed you’d never reach land But I can’t say I’m astounded You would track me down and come around ‘Cause it’s you and I always knew It would never cross your mind I might not want to be found I’m not so different And so what if I am Maybe I’ve changed But I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange You know what I think of you You know what I keep inside my walls You know it all And you know I’ve never been too good at standing tall So call me inaccessible And say that I left ‘cause I couldn’t deal But I feel what I feel And I had to leave it all behind so I could heal I’m not so different And so what if I am Maybe I’ve changed But I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange I look at me and I don’t think I’m strange
12.	The Light That Comes Through 03:26	lyrics	buy track
This is not the end Of the growing season Though it is The end of the bloom Something sacred Hides in every drop of dew In every rosewater rivulet That runs from you Something sacred Pulses at the core of you Holding your smalt And obsidian residue Arabesque design Flourishes that fade with time Leaving just outlines Of the flower that grew And when they fall away You give into the skies of grey You return to your original you You return to your original hue You return to your original blue You return to your original you Something dormant Hibernating out of view Like a dream Until the day it comes true Something dormant Till it stirs anew and You’re more than stained glass You’re the light that comes through Arabesque design Flourishes that fade with time Leaving just outlines Of the flower that grew And when they fall away You give into the skies of grey You return to your original you You return to your original hue You return to your original blue You return to your original you This is not the end Of the growing season Though it is The end of the bloom
13.	Rebreather 03:25	lyrics	buy track
Ill-adapted to the elevation Having only ever summitted false peaks I rely on my guide When my head starts feeling light When my chest starts feeling tight To rebreathe Rebreathe into Rebreathe Rebreathe into me Harnessed by the kind resuscitation Buttressed up and out of the crevasse of the past I rely on my mind When my hands stop feeling When my feet stop feeling To rebreathe Rebreathe into Rebreathe Rebreathe into me Rebreathe life into me Now when I belay The aches and pains abate A new stream of air Allays the old sense of malaise Now when I descend For real or just pretend I can depend on a friend With a warm breath to lend I drop onto the cold facade Lean into a bold glissade This wind could blow ice into anyone's lungs I'm grateful that mine have thawed I'm grateful that mine have thawed

about

Head Like A Nest is full of birds and whimsical storytelling, but it's also a personal record of post-traumatic growth, and a reminder to myself (and maybe to you) that there's creative potential in life's darkest moments.

credits

released November 14, 2025

Music & lyrics by Stephan Nance
Produced & mixed by Josh Frigo
Mastered by Alex Dobbert
Artwork by Rebecca DeMoss
Graphic design by Chad Lowe

See individual tracks for all credits

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Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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Sparkbird New York, New York

Sparkbird, a.k.a. Stephan Nance. Whimsical dark cabaret folk-pop. Pronouns: they/them.
contact: hello@sparkbirdmusic.com

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Head Like A Nest

by Sparkbird

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