Quotes by David Toop - Page 1

Sound: always in a state of emergence or decay
David Toop / Musician
Decay
Sound
States
Copy Quote
I had the idea to do an anthology about instrument-making.
David Toop / Musician
Anthology
Ideas
Instruments
Copy Quote
New ideas emerge of their own free will if they are allowed to.
David Toop / Musician
Free Will
Ideas
New Ideas
Copy Quote
Being a critic is a terrific method for killing your love of art.
David Toop / Musician
Art
Criticism
Killing
Copy Quote
I do still have dips of confidence or [can think] everything I do is rubbish.
David Toop / Musician
Dip
Rubbish
Thinking
Copy Quote
The longer we live, the more we are obliged to confront the deeper meaning of what it is we do.
David Toop / Musician
Deeper
Deeper Meaning
Obliged
Copy Quote
Logically there is nothing new to say about the New. Or maybe it's just a problem of articulating unfamiliar perceptions.
David Toop / Musician
Nothing New
Perception
Problem
Copy Quote
Dub music is like a long echo delay, looping through time...turning the rational musical order into an ocean of sensation.
David Toop / Musician
Ocean
Echoes
Long
Order
Copy Quote
If I'd thought, "I can't really play this instrument," I wouldn't have done it! But I didn't care, you know. I didn't care!
David Toop / Musician
Care
Done
Play
Copy Quote
One of the things about grief - I wouldn't generalise, because everybody responds to tragedies in different ways - but I had a huge amount of energy.
David Toop / Musician
Grief
Tragedy
Way
Copy Quote
Sometimes I'd like everybody who is stuck, or lost, or vacant to stay that way and keep silent for as long as it takes, but that's the critic in me talking.
David Toop / Musician
Long
Talking
Way
Copy Quote
People don't have to put you in a box. You can have the confidence to move across, and combine and learn from each different practice. They inform each other.
David Toop / Musician
Moving
People
Practice
Copy Quote
Like a fly bouncing uselessly off a closed window, I'm caught at a moment when the effort of finding new ways to perceive the world feels just out of reach for me.
David Toop / Musician
Effort
Feels Just
World
Copy Quote
I needed a huge amount of energy to cope with my life. I had a huge amount of energy where stuff was concerned: it was as if all this unconscious material had been unleashed.
David Toop / Musician
Energy
Needed
Stuff
Copy Quote
I don't mean I give the same intensity to everything I do - if I did that, I'd be dead, but I'm very conscious, I make notes, and I have a fairly good idea of what's happening in my life.
David Toop / Musician
Giving
Ideas
Mean
Copy Quote
Paul [ Burwell] and I had also got interested in making books. We'd been working with Bob Cobbing, the sound poet, since the beginning of the 70s, and Bob had this press called Writers Forum.
David Toop / Musician
Bob
Book
Sound
Copy Quote
One of the nicest things is that I still get, very ambiguously, people saying to me, "Oh, I'm just reading your book." And I say, "Which one, for God's sake, I've done six now!" "Oceans of Sound".
David Toop / Musician
Ocean
Book
Reading
Copy Quote
I think I was like [a game of] skittles, knocked apart by this wooden ball, and there's a strength to that: you're not too self-conscious about what you're doing, so you're not too worried about it.
David Toop / Musician
Games
Self
Thinking
Copy Quote
There's a sense of trajectories that are extraordinary about a life like this. You can reconnect with people and go back to playing with them after years and years of not even knowing if they're alive.
David Toop / Musician
Knowing
People
Years
Copy Quote
I was at a time of my life of making choices, I suppose: am I a writer, am I a visual artist? And when I was a teenager. I thought I would be a film-maker. Am I a musician? If so, what kind of musician am I?
David Toop / Musician
Artist
Choices
Teenager
Copy Quote
I guess we all had that work ethic. None of us were rock stars, so if you had time in a studio, it was a big, big deal: you're not going to sit around taking drugs and drinking and waste it, you'll do something.
David Toop / Musician
Drinking
Rocks
Stars
Copy Quote
Every time when it comes to writing a book, I think, "I'm the last person in the world that should be doing this, I don't know anything, I can't do this." And I went through years of that with Into The Maelstrom.
David Toop / Musician
Book
Thinking
Writing
Copy Quote
I had ideas about music and sound and listening and time and so on that I wanted to pursue as an individual, and by doing that book, Brian [Eno] opened the door, and he decided to do a record based loosely on the book.
David Toop / Musician
Book
Doors
Ideas
Copy Quote
If you run out of new ideas when you are very young, then it's a problem of talent; If you run out of new ideas when you get older, it may be that there's nothing left to say, or it may be that core ideas demand repeated attention.
David Toop / Musician
Running
Demand
Ideas
Copy Quote
I was working in, being a single parent with a grieving child of five years old. It was horrendous. I couldn't go out much, because I had my daughter to look after. So people used to come round, and Tony Harrington from The Wire came round.
David Toop / Musician
Daughter
Children
Grieving
Years
Copy Quote
I'd been listening to African-American music since the first record I ever bought, which was by Sam Cooke. And it sounds more like my private thoughts that I never thought I would be able to articulate - I never thought I would be able to express publicly.
David Toop / Musician
African American
Listening
Records
Copy Quote
I'd entirely forgotten about Pass The Distance, and then I went to Japan in 2000, and was asked to do interviews with all these journalists, who were showing up with bootlegs of this record, asking me to talk about it. I was astonished. It kind of gained momentum.
David Toop / Musician
Distance
Japan
Showing Up
Copy Quote
We [with David Cunningham] did do Top Of The Pops. It was an eye-opener. I mean, one of the things that was so interesting - I've talked about this a few times recently, and people can't believe it - they used to do this thing called tape switch with the Musicians Union.
David Toop / Musician
Believe
Eye
Mean
Copy Quote
The Musicians Union declared you couldn't mime on Top Of The Pops, which is obviously impossible, if you've got a studio-based record that you'd worked on for a year or something. And there were a lot of terrible performances. Because on Top Of The Pops, you were just thrown onstage.
David Toop / Musician
Musician
Unions
Years
Copy Quote
At that time, 73 and 74, I became aware that there were a number of us making instruments. Max Eastley was a good friend and he was making instruments, Paul Burwell and I were making instruments, Evan Parker was making instruments, and we knew Hugh Davies, who was a real pioneer of these amplified instruments.
David Toop / Musician
Good Friend
Numbers
Real
Copy Quote
I'd just written the book Ocean Of Sound, and this terrible thing happened in my life: my wife committed suicide. I was a single parent because of that; I was completely shattered. I had a book that I'd just finished that had been produced through a really, really terrible period, but I had managed to finish it.
David Toop / Musician
Ocean
Book
Suicide
Copy Quote
We drank quite a lot and Tony Harrington said, "We're thinking of starting a record label at The Wire; how about you do a solo record?" I said, "Well, how am I going to do that?" I thought about it, and I'd been working on a lot of music in the years before, and I was working as a journalist, full time, really, up until that point; in whatever little spare time I had, I was working on music. So I said yes.
David Toop / Musician
Thinking
Wire
Years
Copy Quote
I think I sent one [book] to Brian Eno. I don't know how I got to know his address, but I sent one to him. He called me up and he said, "I really like the book, and I'm starting a new label, would you liked to do something?" It was a tricky situation for me, because I've always had this thing in my life of a tension between collaboration, which was extremely important to me, and then being alone. Make of that what you will!
David Toop / Musician
Book
Important
Thinking
Copy Quote
I was associated with the Artist Placement Group in the early 1970s and David Hall, the video artist, was an Artist Placement Group artist. I was completely broke at that time, and he said to me, "Come and do some teaching" - he was head of department at Maidstone College of Art. And I went and did a couple of teaching days and practically the only person who showed up was David Cunningham [Flying Lizard's main man], with all of this finished work
David Toop / Musician
Art
Couple
Teaching
Copy Quote
I remember I did quite a lot of interviews when the book and the CD came out, and I did a drivetime interview for Radio London or something. You wouldn't immediately associate the music on Ocean Of Sound with drivetime radio, but people found things that they liked, and the DJ was playing some records at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on a weekday.The man who was playing them said to me, "That Peter Brotzmann track, it's like having your head boiled in acid."
David Toop / Musician
Ocean
Men
Book
Copy Quote
David's [Cunningham] a very interesting character. He has more integrity than is good for him. So, everything he did after that sort of undermined what he'd done. Other people who kind of took life more cheaply, would have really gone for it. David almost did everything he could to scupper the whole thing, which I very much admire, but of course it was deeply irritating then, because we wanted to make a bit of money! So we made this very catchy tune and then he added a bunch of weird stuff which was all very strange.
David Toop / Musician
Character
Integrity
Interesting
Copy Quote

Related Musician Authors

Zz Ward
Musician
Monday, Jun 02, 1986
Zuoxiao Zuzhou
Musician
Wednesday, Mar 04, 1970
Zoot Sims
Musician
Thursday, Oct 29, 1925
Saturday, Mar 23, 1985
Zomby
Musician
Ziggy Marley
Musician
Thursday, Oct 17, 1968
Zakk Wylde
Musician
Saturday, Jan 14, 1967
Zacky Vengeance
Musician
Friday, Dec 11, 1981
Zack De La Rocha
Musician
Monday, Jan 12, 1970
Zac Hanson
Musician
Tuesday, Oct 22, 1985
Zac Farro
Musician
Monday, Jun 04, 1990
Yuki
Musician
Thursday, Feb 17, 1972
Youth Lagoon
Musician
Saturday, Mar 18, 1989
Yoshiki
Musician
Saturday, Nov 20, 1965
Yann Tiersen
Musician
Tuesday, Jun 23, 1970
Willis Earl Beal
Musician

View All Musician Quotes

Top Authors

Joe Biden
Vice President Of The United States
Friday, Nov 20, 1942
John Muir
Author
Saturday, Apr 21, 1838
Thursday, Dec 24, 1914
Nelson Mandela
Former President Of South Africa
Thursday, Jul 18, 1918
Thursday, Dec 05, 2013
Rodney Dangerfield
Comedian
Tuesday, Nov 22, 1921
Tuesday, Oct 05, 2004
Maya Angelou
Author
Wednesday, Apr 04, 1928
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Thomas Jefferson
3Rd US President
Saturday, Apr 13, 1743
Tuesday, Jul 04, 1826
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Theodore Roosevelt
26Th U.s. President
Wednesday, Oct 27, 1858
Monday, Jan 06, 1919
Walt Disney
Animator
Thursday, Dec 05, 1901
Thursday, Dec 15, 1966
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Billy Graham
Evangelist
Thursday, Nov 07, 1918
Napoleon Bonaparte
Military Commander
Tuesday, Aug 15, 1769
Saturday, May 05, 1821
Martin Luther
Monk
Saturday, Nov 10, 1483
Monday, Feb 18, 1546
Albert Camus
Author
Friday, Nov 07, 1913
Monday, Jan 04, 1960

View All Authors

David Toop Quotes - Page 1

Picture Quotes Maker

Related Musician Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

Picture Quotes Maker

Related Musician Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page