Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm proud of my roots. There are not many Asians in the music industry so it's important for me to tell people where I'm from.
I did ballet, jazz, and all that, but I think hip-hop is really where I learned rhythm and groove, which has helped me in music.
That's what I look for in music anyway: I want someone to confuse me to the point where I look inwards rather than at what they're doing.
If something happened where I couldn't write music anymore, it would kill me. It's not just a job. It's not just a hobby. It's why I get up in the morning.
I think they can co-exist. You don't have to put one down for another. I've been bitten by the acting bug, and where it takes me, it won't take away from the music.
I grew up listening to a lot of Ray Charles and '60s rock, thanks to my father, and then my brothers got me in to KISS and whatnot, so I guess that's where I got my first taste for music.
English is really free for me; there's no limits to the music and the imagination. And French, it's just I live in Paris, and it's really a poetic language where you can really play with words.
I wanna make my imprint in the game as far as music - hip-hop, and just music, period. 'Cause I come from hip-hop, that's my background, but I'm not gonna let that limit me from where I can go.
The first musical thing I remember someone recommending to me is probably Ludacris - the one where he has massive arms in the music video. 'Get Back.' It was recommended to me by my cousin, who's now my manager.
When the script was written, it was sent to me with asterisks marking where he felt a song would be appropriate. Before the film was shot, the score was written. I made a demo of it, so they lived with the music as they were making the film.
A lot of marathon runners access flow state. That's why it's so addictive: because they just get into this state where they're just completely one - they are in complete oneness. That's what happens to me when I play music and, I suppose, a lot of other people, too, which is why we do it.
I think, until I was 16, classical music had just seemed like a little bit of a rhythmic wasteland for me. Coming from bluegrass, where one conducts oneself rhythmically, it seemed like such a different approach, and at that point the difference that I was noticing was a real turn off to me.
Like with me, like around '97, for Christmas my parents bought me an MPC 2000 sampler and a little eight-track cassette recorder. And I started sampling records and, you know, producing hip-hop beats. And it got to the point where I realized - I innately realized that the music I liked the most was made by people that played instruments.