Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The whole appeal of dance music is being liberated because music is liberating and it's not about club culture or the social aspect of playing the mating game or whatever you're doing at a club. It's more about the euphoric aspect of listening to music.
I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today...Al Stanton walked in one day and said, 'Otis, I've got an idea. Why don't you write a song called "All Shook Up"?' Two days later I brought the song in and said, 'Look, man, I did something with it.'
This is one of my lesser moments, and one I'm not proud to admit to, but there's always a time I feel the need to have control over the process and try to defend the song from the person I'm writing with. It never, ever helps and always causes problems.
As I've grown older I've been more influenced by more meandering styles of guitar playing, whether it's Celtic or Ethiopian folk music or some kind of noisier jazz like Sonny Sharrock. In terms of songwriting, I don't know that I could even pin it down.
The world's a jungle in my eyes, innit? Everything's tribal. If you see someone who don't look like you - especially the colour of your skin - you're going to be suspicious, or not as welcoming or warming, innit? I've learned not to take it too personal.
It seems to be really trendy to get excited about a random-ass radio song. Which, I like radio songs, don't get me wrong. But I'm just confused at which ones seem to be heralded as some sort of genius-like concoction. It doesn't totally make sense to me.
I think God has me on a path. I think he puts certain people in my life, and angels send messages to me, like, Kanye, I want you to say this, and I want you to say that, and I want you to talk to this girl here, and I don't want you to do this over here.
As with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There is a simple memory aid that you can use to determine whether it is the correct time to order chocolate dishes: any month whose name contains the letter A, E, or U is the proper time for chocolate.
I've been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging... you know you have a multimillion-seller hit - and what you're working on suddenly has magic.
Look, it makes sense to be able to take part of what you've earned in this life and have it grow. And I hope that other musicians out there that do have their moments of profit and of success are wise enough not to squander those profits and that success.
Where I'm from, there ain't a lot of other options, you know what I'm saying? Entertainment or football or crime. I don't want to spread the message that all you can do is music or sport. You can be anything. Anything. That's the message I like to spread.
To me, the idea of a weatherman is really powerful. There's a guy on television or on the radio telling us the future, and nobody cares. It's this daily mundane miracle, and I think the songs I chose are about noticing the beauty in normal, everyday life.
I've been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging ... you know you have a multimillion-seller hit - and what you're working on suddenly has magic.
We've put out records that consistently have been what the fans have been looking for from Disturbed. We've been consistent with our live performances. As long as we continue to maintain that level of trust with our fanbase, I think they'll still be there.
Deceit, Deceive, Decide just what you believe... I see faith in your eyes, Never you hear the discouraging lies. I hear faith in your cries... Broken is the promise, Betrayal... The healing hand held back by the deepened nail... Follow the god that failed.
My parents listened to the Outlaws when I was a kid and I just had no interest in it. But my boyfriend at the time listened to Hank Williams III, and I thought that was really cool because he was singing about whatever he wanted to but it was very country.
When you're in a songwriting class, and you write a song, and you hand it in to a teacher to grade, I'm still going to say that it's a really awesome song whether I got an A or a D. I learned to stick to my guns and take the tools as tools and not as rules.
I sought to reform minstrelsy among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order. ... Some of my songs should be performed in a pathetic, not a comic style.
I don't know if there's anything that would surprise people, because I don't think that anybody knows anything about me at all. There's not much out there. I think I'm going to come out with a pretty dark and troubled record, and it might upset some people.
I get starstruck really easily. I love music so much - it sounds so silly to say that - so if I'm playing a festival and somebody I love, like [Primal Scream's] Bobby Gillespie, is there in the backstage area, I'm like, "Wow this is amazing! There they are!"
Most bands have a sound that they're already identified with, so for the producer it becomes a process of helping them find their muse in the studio to make a record that will not only satisfy them artistically, but will also do something in the marketplace.
And you can't get away from a mirror if you stand in front of it all the time, right. But if you step away from it, you don't notice it any more. And that's what the stage is like for me. See, an image becomes meaningless in as much as it's always temporary.
A kite can't really fly free,that's just an expression. In order to soar high in the sky the string of a kite needs to be anchored. If the string breaks the kite drops back to the ground. The kite's freedom depends on it not being as free as he thinks it is.
I just wanted to make more of a lifestyle record instead of anything else. I wasn't trying to do anything mainstream or nothing like that. I wanted to speak on this time period where I was fed up with a couple things and I had an idea of what I wanted to do.
We've been pretty lucky we've played with Feeder, Hundred Reasons and Puddle of Mud, but I think the one we're most proud of is playing with The Deftones because when we were kids they were everyone's favourite band. I think all our mates were pretty envious.
If you're a songwriter, it's to perform your songs. For singers, it's just to get to sing somewhere. So while there may be a reluctance with all the things that go along with it, you got to choose, and this is one of my big opportunities to get back doing it.
I spent two of my checks in telemarketing when I was 18 years old on my first pair of Gucci slippers, and this was before H&M and Zara. You couldn't just find cool stuff growing up, and for me, I care about cool stuff, it means a lot to me and people like me.
Most of the press I end up doing now asks, "Make a playlist for us... What are your top ten current bands?" I'm like, "I don't even know one band!" It's kind of awful. I would love to get more new music. I'm just not that amazing with the Internet and things.
My songs speak for themselves. The musicians who play on them and the way they sound and where they were recorded and the way they were recorded is the old Nashville way ... they sound as country or more country than a lot of things that are on country radio.
Did He give me the gift of love to say who I could choose? When God made me did He give me the gift of voice so some could silence me? Did he give me the gift of vision not knowing what I might see? Did he give me the gift of compassion to help my fellow man?
I always figured it was best if I write my songs, take them to my publisher and just lay back. There used to be so many things going on - getting to the artist, getting to the publishers - you know, politics. I just didn't want to get mixed up in all of that.
One of the things that we talked about was this idea of 'Memento Mori' - like the reminder of our own mortality - and so we were sort of trying to express that in our press photos. And it's one of the themes of the album [Modern Vampires of the City] as well.
When I hear someone, instantaneously, I'm like, 'Who's singing?' You're giving people so much of yourself, and my voice is the most natural, distinctive tool I have. It's up to me to express myself on a wider scale than just writing vocal melodies and lyrics.
I think it's really important for the audience to feel connected, and when it's good it's this amazing, symbiotic relationship. I try to give as much as they can give. We're not avant garde and we make no claim to be revolutionary, but I think we are sincere.
If you're going for things that are really terrible ideas you have to really have all your faculties about you to get away with them without being crucified. The best rock music gets away with something, somehow, that it shouldn't be allowed to get away with.
Radio is so cutthroat, but I do feel like the music industry is structured so differently than it used to be. I'm amazed and in awe of artists who can build a parallel universe that's so big and clearly defined that the mainstream finally has to pay attention.
Every summer in my old area, Bow, these kids from across the road used to bring out quad bikes in the park. They let me have a go, and I don't know what was wrong with me, but I drove straight into a gate and fractured my big toe. I had this mad limp for ages.
That's another thing in Alice Munro: it's always, like, some middle-aged woman who is going to cheat on her husband, and there's that moment where she decides to take an extreme risk. It's always after an extreme risk where life really happens for Alice Munro.
Far from being the crown of human thought and religion as its supporters have claimed for several bloody millennia, [monotheism] is in fact a monstrous step backwards--a step that has been responsible for more human misery than any other idea in known history.
I wanted to keep the music very electronic, very filmic, and give it an almost sci-fi like quality. Music is a necessity for me. I go into the studio at least five days a week, every week, so once I had the idea and the template, the process was quick and fun.
I grew up listening to hits, and if I write something I feel, I think that's pretty mass appeal. I'm not very elitist with music. Love is universal; a great melody is universal; it goes around the world; it's not just American. A great song can touch the world.
You obviously don't really forget how to play the old songs; you just don't have to spend so much time convincing yourself that you remember them. Way less mental energy is spent swimming around in lyrics you've already written and chords you've already played.
Okay, everyone please be completely quiet, because I can literally hear a whisper, and it’ll throw off my stream of consciousness, and when I get my stream of consciousness going that’s when I give the best, illest quotes. Literally, a whisper can throw it off.
I see country music, I see people who take care of their own. You've got 75 year-old guys on the road. That's what I was put here to do, y'know, so I wanna make sure I surround myself with people who are gonna take care of me. 'Cause I'm in it for the long run.
When you're trying to do a traditional book musical like 'Book of Mormon,' it's always nice to have characters that could very naturally break into song, and its good to pick a subject matter that allows that to happen in a way that doesn't disarm the audience.
It seems like songwriting for most songwriters is only one season in their life, a five or ten year period. For me, I don't worry about it, but I know there might come a day when I can't write anymore, or don't have good song ideas or the fire to do it anymore.
For me, when I'm writing something really personal, I don't feel good about it. It's weird that people can connect to it and like something that came from a really crap place. You have to be quite brave to write about something that you honestly feel and think.
I have complicated feelings about nostalgia. I think that sometimes it can be dangerous. It can airbrush the truth, or fictionalize the truth, which leads to the worst kind of sentimentality. But I'm also a sentimental person who feels quite a bit of nostalgia.
Possessing an array of athletic gifts is something most tennis players can only dream about. Most players, if they're lucky, have one attribute that stands out -- either a monster serve, great footspeed, superb touch, superior timing or innate feel for the ball.
The way radio is working right now, you can't put out anything just based on the producer's name. The general public and radio are so selective and focused on a certain genre and a certain set of songs that you have to have a great song to crack through all that.