If you have twenty guys in the room and you just bring in one girl, you change the entire mood and everyone plays different.
You can't steal an artist's songs and also tell him he can't license that music to a commercial.
Vinyl survived, we managed not to kill it. Knowing that you’ve taken part in this fight... You can’t imagine the happiness it brings. Every time I see a kid going out of the store with a vinyl record under the arms, my heart beats faster. Music should only be this. An intense emotion.
Every time there's a list of the 100 greatest records of all time, all those albums were recorded in two days. Hardly any of them took a year, I'll tell you. In this day and age, I think it's important that people know that.
I believe I am a better director than actor. I enjoy acting if the part is right. Directing comes very naturally to me. I enjoy it. I am very confident in my work.
I can't imagine being anything creative in a major town because everybody's doing the same exact thing you're doing. How can you not get confused about what you yourself are doing?
Technique plays a part - you have to know how to play.
I certainly wouldn't want a song that I'd already written to be used on a commercial. That seems strange.
Deadlines and things make you creative.
That's what happens nowadays with people working on computers. They can so easily fix things with their mouse and take out all the, 'Oh, somebody coughed in the background; we need to take that out' - or somebody hit a bad note. Those are all the best moments.
The biggest failures come round and spring ultimate surprises of survival.
A riff can take on the aspect of a chorus in a listener's psyche.
I think the most important thing is to start with something that fits perfectly. Don't worry about having it in five colors.
If you emphasize one part of the song, it trivializes the rest of the music.
It is a myth that art has to be sold. It is not like stocking a grocery store where people fill a pushcart. Art is a product that has no apparent need. The salesperson builds the need in the mind of the buyer.
Every album I've done pretty much has been not in a pleasant, quote-unquote, environment - it's freezing cold, or it was somebody's house with not-that-great equipment. It's always something that spurs on to get the job done.
We've had experience of involvement in a local scene, and it was a good one, and we've learned a lot from it, and I don't have any need to join into that ever again. It's too counterproductive to writing music and performing to the best of your abilities. It's okay when you're 20 years old - you're getting out there and you're learning - but not when you're 30 years old.
Onstage, I don't feel any glory from people clapping in the audience, but when they're pushing me to do something new that feels good.
I've always been making up my own restrictions for myself, from day one, and it's compelling, because it forces me to think. That's always been a driving force for me.
The secret of a successful art career is to make more art that folks think they need than pieces they just want. When a piece of art emotionally connects with a person the work becomes a need. You are then on your way to becoming successful.
When you put something out there into the world, there's all these words you don't want to hear, that you hope people don't say. I don't like anything that starts with 're' - like retro, reinvent, recreate - I hate that. It's always like living in the past - copying, emulating.
There's Catholic guilt about things, then there's the guilt of being the youngest of 10, so when nice things happen to you, you're not really allowed to enjoy them.
It's a sound bite. It's very of this age, because that's what people want.
In all my songs, I take on roles and play characters. It's a unique way to explore ideas and decisions I might not think or make in real life.
It's harder to put yourself in a place where you could easily be seen as a fake. But that's more interesting to me.
