Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Being black in America - especially as I was growing up - the feeling of oppression, the feeling of being outcast, the feeling of not having a voice was part of my life.
I really love the fact that instrumental music can have you do your own inner-movies or your own visuals to the sound. There's not lyrics dictating what you should feel.
I believe there's more than this - that maybe, when we die, our brains conjure up some kind of shutdown experience, and that's what people try to sum up as the afterlife.
I'm more confident in my music now because people are saying it's good - I'm trying to believe it, but it's very difficult. I don't know if it's going to end in disaster.
Complainin' to my lawyer how this rookie tried to frisk me... Jealous of my jeep, I gave his badge to the chief, And got his ass directin' traffic in the heat for a week.
I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.
Once I'm in a situation where I can not do anything for three years and go off the map, I'll focus more on writing. Right now, I want to just make Flume awesome... and big.
I'd hate to compare art to life but I think a movie is an entity of its own, and when it's done, you want everybody to like it like you want everybody to like your children.
I like to consider myself an all-rounder, and I'm not trying to be King of the Scene or anything. I'd like to do everything, from writing film scores to producing pop albums.
I'm just trying to work out how to write music now, because I've never had the opportunity where my number-one priority is writing music. I don't know how my brain works yet.
Pop music has greater power to change people and to affect people because it's a universal language. You don't have to understand music to understand the power of a pop song.
The black community has for a long time been a part of the Hollywood community, and of course we would love to have a more proportionate ratio of films that tell our stories.
God bless Skrillex. I love the kid, but he puts out a new video, what, every four weeks? I'm like the Dos Equis guy. I don't normally do music videos, but when I do, I go big.
Meditation is a really powerful tool I have for life now. The only reason I know about it is because I was stressing about writing and a friend taught me it. It's been useful.
Germany is probably the richest country in Western Europe. Yet they wouldn't take any television with Duke and Ella, their reaction being that people weren't interested in it.
If I had a nickel for every time someone asked, 'When are you doing an album?' My career is way too transparent to do say, 'Guess what - I've got 16 tracks you've never heard!'
My mother would take me to jazz concerts in the park and everybody was smoked out. She gave me the intro and then she forced me to play an instrument to keep me out of trouble.
The most revealing books are the Holy Koran and the Holy Bible. The Bhagavad Gita is a great book as well, and the works of Buddha. These are the major influences on the world.
I actually heard hip-hop before I saw a movie in a movie theater. I heard hip-hop first, at the tender age of seven, so that came first. I didn't see a movie until I was eight.
Because I'm in a modern studio, there are so many possibilities - you can do so much. So it's sometimes a little bit confusing for me to actually see which way should I choose.
I love heavy music. I keep Flume nice and melodic, so I save the angry, testosterone-fueled heavy stuff for What So Not. I think it's a good defining thing for the two projects.
A wise man has to always listen to the peers he surrounds around himself. That's why you surround yourself with other smart people. Captain Kirk keep Mr. Spock right beside him.
Just as you must come through a woman's womb to attain physical birth, so must you come through Wisdom to achieve mental birth. And like childbirth, Wisdom often comes with pain.
When we started making electronic music I imagined that the reaction we got from the rock musicians must have been similar to the one the beat groups got from people like my dad.
The knowledge of self is the most important thing, because how are you going to know God if you don't know yourself? How are you going to know anything if you don't know yourself?
I stopped with the red meat, let go of turkey and chicken, and then I held onto fish. When we finished 'Wu-Tang Forever,' I felt like I evolved and completely dived into veganism.
I usually write my music on a piano, and I really enjoy performing that way, because that actually shows how the music was in my mind before it actually became an electronic song.
The economic picture in the States today doesn't allow for jazz concerts in a tour fashion. People now are too used to the Festival, which gives them more names for the same price.
Jazz is America's own. It is played and listened to by all peoples - in harmony together. Pigmentation differences have no place... as in genuine democracy, only performance counts.
To play today in London, next week in Madrid and the week after that in Warsaw is a bit better than playing Newark and Baltimore and Philadelphia. I've been doing that for 20 years.
Back in the day, I had this fluoro pink hoodie that I thought was the coolest thing ever. Left it at a party and never saw it again. Probably the best thing that could have happened.
But for the wise, it says in the Bible: when a wise man hears wisdom, he reacts. When a fool hears it, his acts are folly. If you wanna be a fool, help yourself, it's not my problem.
Even if I don't think in visuals about the music while I'm doing it, after the music is finished, it could be great to incorporate that in the live show or doing my own music videos.
I used to go with him and I'd sometimes play, take over from him. That was my first taste of the music business, I suppose, but I was also in the youth orchestra at Johnston Grammar.
You know, sometimes you're jealous of other people and their achievements, and you wanna be that person, but I've come to realize that each individual on this planet has his own path.
To me it's all about textures, and that's the side of music that I'm finding really exciting. I feel like it's one of the only parts of music that mankind hasn't fully discovered yet.
I'm the kind of person who needs to be challenged all the time. I need my brain to go, or else I just end up playing video games all day, you know? That's cool too, I guess, at times.
If there's no deals being made rappers, what happens to the lawyers. They've got to close their firms, they can't make no money. How can they make money from the client now? Litigation!
The way you have to think in chess is good for everyday thinking, really, especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.
I've grown up by the beach all my life, and I almost get anxiety if I haven't been swimming for a couple weeks or a month. It kind of builds up, so I try and get out as much as possible.
I've never been a rap guy, I don't really know that much about rap music, to be honest. I like it, but I think what really happened was just my music seems to work so well with rap music.
In today's society, the forces against you are heavy against you. The whole goal is to get knowledge of yourself, but people are so far from themselves that they don't believe themselves.
I was thinking about working with Lady Gaga, not 'Born This Way' but more her old stuff that she did with RedOne from her first album. I think that would be really fun - a cool combination.
I love my Fender Rhodes. It's been a part of my family since that keyboard came out, and I've had it reworked so that it's in the best condition it's actually ever been in. That is my baby.
I think it's important to remember that music supervision is not just about a fantastic record collection or knowledge of music, although that certainly helps for aspiring music supervisors.
A strong concept is the most important thing in creating a record. When you can listen to it and see a whole movie in your head, that's what separates an instrumental album from a beat tape.
I believe in the 12 Jewels and try to provide my childrem with them. That is Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Freedom, Justice, Equality, Food, Clothing, Shelter, Love, Peace and Happiness.
My parents used to play me this album when I couldn't go to sleep. It was called 'Deep Forest.' I think it was a self-titled record. It's actually still one of my favorite albums of all time.
Reading music has opened up me up so much. I've been experimenting for so long and trying to make sense of things just from my ears. It takes forever. Now I can get where I want much quicker.
I think as time goes on that generation of rappers who's making it now is gonna face the same thing that my generation was facing, which is the decrease of sales. The decrease of hard-copies.