Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
As I grew up, I was interested in other areas, too, especially literature. It became a major love of mine. Later, it became a difficult choice for me as to whether to major in music or literature. It wasn't until my 30s that I began a profession in music.
I do listen to music. Movie scores, exclusively, because it's all about mood and nonspecificity. I love the way modern movie scoring is all about nonspecificity. You know, if I shuffled the tracks from 'Inception,' I challenge you to tell me which is which.
The reason I like Steve Aoki is because I can trace my love of electronic music all the way back to when I was listening to not just new wave but to YMO [Yellow Magic Orchestra] which, to me, was the ultimate Japanese band and launched synth electronic music.
The coolest thing, too, is that people that have never even seen 'One Tree Hill' tell me, 'I love your music.' And I'm like, 'Oh, do you watch the show?' And they say 'No.' And to me that's even cooler because that means I'm actually starting to get country fans.
To me, it's pretty much the same thing - I just love playing music. But the cool thing about DJing is that I get to play other people's music, I can mix it up between our songs and a variety of musical genres. It also enables me to be more intimate with the audience.
Religion is a huge part of me; I'm a practicing Muslim. I'm pretty much open about it if people were to answer questions. At the end of the day, I'm just a normal girl. I have my own beliefs just like everyone else. I have a strong belief in something, but I also love music.
Christian music was such a huge foundation for me, even as a kid, and I grew to love Christian music not only because of the musicianship, which I thought was extraordinary, but because of the message in it. It was such a huge building block of who I was and who I would become.
The coolest thing for me now is when I'm in the States and I meet other Asian-Americans who are like, 'Dude, thank you so much for doing what you do. I love your music, I love whatever. But whatever you do, we're gonna support you because there aren't many Asian faces doing music.'
I love... different kinds of music. I like classical music and pop music. I like alternative, and I like rap, hip-hop, and I kind of collected all these things that I love, and they infused my sensibilities, and I just wanted to sing because it felt like it needed to come out of me.
The people who I grew up making music with, we've all grown up and become successful in different ways. My manager supported me since I was 16 and believed in me as a musician. He's been there since Day 1, and there's so much to be said about doing something with people that you love.
I love all types of music. Jazz, classical, blues, rock, hip-hop. I often write scripts to instrumentals like a hip-hop artist. Music inspires me to write. It's either music playing or completely silent. Sometimes distant sound fuels you. In New York there's always a buzzing beneath you.
I felt like I grew up with Bowie. I never dressed like him, even though I did love the music, but consistently throughout my career he has been a go-to reference point: The suit from 'Young Americans,' or the gold Missoni-type looks of Ziggy Stardust. 'The Berlin Years' still influences me.
The older I've gotten, the more I've gotten a little precious about music-related films as it comes to biopics. I kind of don't want to see it; I'd rather see a documentary. And this is just coming from me. I love music documentaries; I kind of don't want to see people embodying those people.
It's strange: I love pop music, and I really can enjoy it, but I didn't feel like the characters within pop music - like when Madonna sings 'Crazy For You', for instance, I don't feel like I would ever be the character she takes on in that song. I would never feel... I don't have that confidence in me.
I'd say the key thing is to remain true to what originally got you into music. When I wrote 'Hallelujah,' it ignited me to do music because of the love and joy that I got from writing that song. Down the road, you get all of these opinions from people; just remember what got you started in the first place.
When I decided that I will become a music director, the first thing I wanted to do was to make songs for Vishesh Films as I used to love their musicals. I had eight to ten songs which I had made only for them and fortunately 'Sun Raha Hai' from that list was liked by them and it actually opened doors for me.
My process is walking down to the locker room, laying everything out to how I like it. I'm very particular about setting up my bags and my dressing situation. I love to pull out that portable speaker and blare music even if nobody else likes it. To me, its just keeping everything the same every single night.
My favorite all-time artist... I would say, I think that must be Sigur Ros, I love that band. It's like going to the stars for me. When I put the music from Jonsi or Sigur Ros on, it's so relaxing, it's warm and it never gets boring to listen to, you always hear new things. Yeah, that must be my favorite band.
I can have a song with Ariana Grande that is going to be the song for all the kids and the teen girls, and then another song that could be for a different group of people who all love the song. I'm with whoever. Whatever type of people want to love the music and whatever they love about the music is fine with me.
I felt like when I got with Kanye, and we discussed me being on G.O.O.D. Music, he just really took me to a place in regards to music that I love and music that I had made previously. We had a clear understanding of what I wanted to make, and he just seemed like he was an advocate for hardcore, uncompromising hip-hop.
I don't think I'm turning back the clock by doing these old tunes. I love rock and roll and popular music. It's just that the spirits of the singers whose songs I do are living within me. That's why the songs come out in the voices of the original singers. I'm not doing imitations. That's the way they sound inside me.
My grandfather played a mandolin, so I got my hands on that. Then on down to a banjo, and I found I couldn't play any kind of soft or mournful music with that so I took up the fiddle in my late 20s or early 30s - and that was far too late. But it keeps me off the streets. It has been a love of mine since I was 17 maybe.
I'm totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music. Some of the themes she writes about are stuff I wish was there for me when I was in high school, and I'm so happy she really cares about her female fans. She's not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls.
I would love to do something with many artists, you know: Fantasia, Cardi B, Lil Wayne, J.Lo, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson. There's so many of them! All of them are iconic in their own way and to collaborate with any of those artists of that magnitude would be such an honor for me because I grew up listening to them and I love their music.
My fans saw 'Roll Bounce,' but also that older crowd who might not have been familiar with me on the music tip saw 'Roll Bounce' and loved it. 'Roll Bounce' opened up that door for me to have older people love Bow Wow and opened up that door so all of the kids would love Bow Wow. My fan base is really diverse; it's all ages and all colors.