You put a big bird in a small cage, it'll sing you a song
A lot of loud people have been talking over the years; they have these huge voices but don't say much. I'm sure there are a lot of really quiet people who have a lot more intelligent things to say than the loud people.
My music represents walking on train tracks in the middle of the woods, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. You walk down the tracks and you're walking every two tracks, and you've got your headphones on, and on both sides you've got forest, and in your rear is this long line of train tracks that's weaving through the woods. It's a very cool place, to walk along the train tracks because of the rhythm of walking every few feet through the woods. It's a good place to go dream.
I just remember music always being a part of my life. I was never like, "I'm gonna be a rock star," or "I'm gonna be in a band." It was more "I just play piano, and I'm always going to play piano. That's who I am and that's cool." I think music became so ingrained in me that it was not even my choice.
I think my music being referred to as "cinematic" has a lot to do with people just not being used to listening to instrumental music without watching a film. I'm still pretty convinced of that. You'll play Chopin in place of something average and like, "Wow, that'd be great in a film." People say it every time, swear to God. I don't think people have a good relationship with instruments and music anymore. But it's definitely visual; I started writing with this band because of the pictures. I can't really deny it either, you know?
Children aren't born with the techniques of democratic problem solving, but they are born with one of its key components - the desire to speak out...and that's where the struggle for democracy begins.
It's very difficult for me to travel now without music just because I'm so spoiled. It's a huge luxury to go and play your music for all these people around the world and having come up to you in a special way - they really want to show your their city, or really want to show you where they are from. If you are just traveling, you don't get that same welcome.
When you travel, you can see lots of great buildings and monuments and stuff, but the best part of traveling is meeting people as you go. Those are the people who made the places you go to anyway. All my memories of traveling - yeah, there are some buildings or landscapes that I'll always remember - but I still think I remember the people I meet more than any of that.
I do like choral music a lot, the voice is a pretty strong instrument - out of all the instruments, it's the most intimate. There's nothing you can do about it, it just feels so good when you hear a bunch of voices sing together.
A backyard for me is more being with the people around you, your friends. I think that's what defines your home; not your actual, physical home. When you travel a lot, what makes you feel at home is when your friends whom you know really well are there, your girlfriend.
Bollywood has got this rare quality where it dances, but it still has a depth of a sad song at the same time. It's really strange. They kind of manage to do two things at once. We do a ballad, or a dance song, and it's very difficult. They kind of mix those two things together. It's pretty impressive, beautiful music.
Electronic music was just discovery about sound, all our sound options. The core percussions and melodies, they forget about it, they didn't think about those those for a good four, five years, because they were just discovering the new tools and what they could do with them, you know? The big folk revival, I think is a backlash against that. And now, I think they'll probably try to find somewhere in the middle. It's interesting. It's like push-and-pull. It's always like that, you know? Music history is always like that, this repeating evolution of music.
The one good thing about a movie and music and stuff like that: Sometimes it's a counterpoint between the movie and the music itself, the difference and the tension they build together. I think that could be something that helped with me, because when I write songs now, I write lyrics a bit like that. I try to make the music be an interesting twist on the lyrics and help tell the story in a - I don't tell crazy stories, you know? So a lot of times, the twist is in the subtleties. The twist is in the way the story's told.
When you go away for a month on tour, there's only so much information you can take in. You're traveling city by city every day. I think five of the 30 days you actually keep with you and the rest becomes mush. And when you get back you're really mushy.
Everybody always wants to meet musicians. You can go to any random bar around the world and be like, "I'm a musician," and they'll have something to say to you. It's kind of this weird passport where you can go around and as soon as you say you're a musician, you're welcome.
