Los Angeles-based songwriter Spencer Hoffman has been gigging for a decade, since he, his brother and their high school friends formed the band Honyock when he was age 16. They would go on to open for such acts as La Luz, The Dodos, Anna Burch, Surfer Blood and collaborate with members of Father John Misty and producer Riley Geare (Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Caroline Rose).

Hoffman's debut single "Like a Bird" marks his first effort under his own name. The song was written as he was moving up and down the Pacific Coast before settling in Los Angeles. It draws inspiration from the American folk tradition, country songwriters such as Roger Miller and Guy Clark and 19th century romantic poetry. "There is a poem by Percey Bysshe Shelley called 'To a Skylark' I was inspired by," Hoffman explains. "In the poem he pines to be able to sing with such natural joy as a Skylark, which flies so high it is heard but not seen. I was listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell and my friend Joules (Sea of Bees) and thinking that they get close to singing in that effortlessly untethered way. Singing is a joyful act but also one of mourning and sometimes desperation. I wonder if it is the same for birds."