Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I love '80s beats; everyone does.
No one recognises me on the street, ever.
I don't think I'll ever become a pop star.
If I feel like I'm myself, then I'm very uncomfortable.
A lot of my personal life feels very separate from my music.
Green tea is my main source of caffeine, so I drink it every day.
You don't have to know about 'Hippolytus' to listen to 'Tragedy.'
I often find that I like the vibe of not having technology around me.
If you've ever seen paparazzi go after a celebrity, it's really freaky.
I just always make honest music. I just always kinda do what I wanna do.
'Tragedy' and 'Loud City Song' are both inspired by stories from the past.
I started writing music as a composer in school, in the classical tradition.
To me, the process of art is very much a process of translation, of borrowing.
I'm not an unhappy person - I'm just an anxious person. It runs in the family.
I don't often meet with strangers and feel okay about collaborating with them.
I listen to the timbre of the music, and I fit my voice to blend with that timbre.
'Maxim's' was supposed to be on 'Ekstasis,' but it was very much in its own world.
I really love working with Ramona from Nite Jewel. We've kind of grown up together.
I played cello on my early recordings, but that doesn't mean I'm a cellist, you know?
I don't fit into a group very well socially. And that might be reflected in my music.
I really like being home. I like being comfortable, and I'm not a very dramatic person.
I started classical piano when I was eight, but I wasn't a virtuoso. I just really liked it.
Amidst all the internal and external babble we experience daily, it's hard to find one's foundation.
I don't use the harpsichord because it evokes a past time period: I use it because I like the sound.
It's so hard to know where you belong, ever. You have to be yourself and let yourself fall wherever you fall.
I try to ignore people's opinions about my music - you don't want to hold yourself back because of that stuff.
I basically just write stream of consciousness to a certain extent. I let the song kind of go where it wants to go.
I really write at home on my own, and the demos themselves are very similar to the final recordings in a lots of ways.
If I'm kind of sad or depressed, it doesn't necessarily help me to write a song about exactly what I'm depressed about.
The meaning of the words in my songs are very important to me. But what's most important to me is that the music works.
For me, the poetic decisions tend to be calculated, and the musical decisions inspired by the poetic decisions are free.
I don't consider myself supremely talented, but I really like to try things and sift through it and see what mess I made.
I don't think all music that is considered 'avant-garde' is bad, but it's definitely elitist. I hope my music is not that.
I try to not think too much about how people are receiving my music. And I'm not really famous enough that it's a problem.
The classic problem in a relationship is a person trying to control the other person. People just want to conquer somebody.
I did study with Anne Carson briefly in Michigan. She taught there, and that's where I first encountered her, in her class.
I don't ever like to see paparazzi much, but I have seen them, and I guess anyone who's seen them knows how scary they are.
When I was a kid, I had a xylophone, and I thought that was the instrument I wanted to play. I didn't realize it was a toy.
I like mantras and repeating things, like in pop music, where you repeat a line over and over again. It's just so beautiful.
I was pretty scared of the idea as a younger person of being a musician on the road. It didn't occur to me as a possibility.
You can have an Internet presence, but it doesn't mean anyone has any idea who you are or what you look like. Which is great.
I'm happy that I worked alone on 'Tragedy,' but it's obvious that I was trying to create something much bigger than I could do on my own.
David Bowie - I definitely knew some of his music as a teenager, but I didn't actually listen to his music as much until I was in my 20s.
It's nice to work with people who know how to mic drums right and how to record properly. But there's something to be said for doing it yourself.
Musical themes developing is a lot of what classical music is based on, and exposition and recapitulation - these kinds of things I find oppressive.
I am very interested in the human voice and how we use it, especially when we aren't thinking, like the kind of stuff Robert Ashley was interested in.
One of the struggles that I have with classical music is the way one thinks about a recapitulation. There's always this idea of themes, and I have trouble with that.
In high school, I would secretly play Joni Mitchell songs all the time. That's when I started singing and playing at the same time, and I got really into doing that.
I don't thrive in a school or academic environment, I found out. I thrive better in the world outside the small academy because I find it hard to explain what I'm doing.
I think my music is experimental, playful, challenging, focused, fun. I don't want it to be thought of as trying to appeal to a certain type of person or being very cerebral.