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John K. Samson

John K. Samson Quotes

Musician

John K. Samson is a Canadian musician known for his active and influential presence in the independent music scene. Best recognized as the founding member and lead vocalist of The Weakerthans, a band celebrated for its profound lyrics and unique musical style. Samson's musical career began in the 1990s, and his work blends folk, rock, and poetic elements, earning him a dedicated fan base.

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All Thinking Song Punk Stills Writing Able Boundaries Difficult Focus Forever

Famous John K. Samson Quotes

“John Berger once defined music by saying that it began as a howl, became a prayer, then a lament, and still contains the elements of all three. I think that's pretty wise. That's about the only way I know how to explain what music is.”

Thinking Knows Way Stills Three Prayer Know How Wise Elements Music Is Defined Howl Lament

Author:John K. Samson

“I try to write lyrics that will be able to function on their own if they get separated from the music. But I wouldn't want to take anything away from poets, who work without the frames songwriters get from melody, and I think lyrics should be considered as their own thing.”

Ifs Thinking Want Should Writing Trying Able Poet Function Melody Songwriters

Author:John K. Samson

“I think we all have a certain number of "coming of age" songs, and then a writer has to expand and grow into more varied and specific themes. And the music industry is, like Jawbreaker says, "selling kids to other kids," so it makes sense that those early songs in a writer's life are often the ones that catch people's ears, and later work is more difficult and less immediate.”

People Thinking Kids Age Certain Song Grows Difficult Numbers Industry Ears Selling Make Sense Theme Coming Of Age Music Industry

Author:John K. Samson

“There are definitely parts of me in most of the protagonists I write, but I find a bit of distance can be useful, so I often find myself better able to write from a point of view that isn't exactly my own.”

Writing Able Bits My Own Views Distance Point Of View Protagonists

Author:John K. Samson

“I do get a little shy about contemporary language and events, but I also enjoy the idea of dating myself, somehow, anchoring a song in a specific time and place. Sometimes the new words and objects are too enjoyable and descriptive to ignore. And maybe making work that acknowledges that it won't last forever is important, too.”

Littles Important Ideas Sometimes Lasts Song Language Enjoy Forever Events Objects Dating Contemporary Acknowledge Shy Enjoyable New Words

Author:John K. Samson

“In this frightening, anxious time to be alive it can be liberating to remember that nothing lasts forever. That can focus and invigorate our hopes.”

Lasts Remember Forever Focus Alive Anxious Frightening Liberating Nothing Lasts Forever

Author:John K. Samson

“I still think of myself as punk, because the way I became empowered to play music is entirely due to punk bands.”

Thinking Way Stills Play Band Music Is Dues Punk Empowered

Author:John K. Samson

“I listened to lots of other kinds of music, but punk is what allowed me to actually play music.”

Author:John K. Samson

“In my mind I still qualify as punk, though I know four out of five punks would disagree.”

Knows Mind Stills Five Four Disagree Punk

Author:John K. Samson

“I've always viewed my career with some suspicion, like I don't want to count on it to be the only thing I do. Partly that has to do with feeling like an imposter, like we all do sometimes, and partly I like doing other things, and being a full-time artist takes a focus I recognise I don't have.”

Want Sometimes Feelings Artist Careers Focus Suspicion Recognise Imposter

Author:John K. Samson

“I would only listen to certain things, like a lot of teenagers do. But the Tragically Hip is a ribbon that's been with me pretty much my entire musical life. Every mix tape I ever made had at least one Hip song on it. Right from the outset I feel like Gord Downie built so much room into his songs. There was so much space in them that he created. He made me think of songwriting as full of boundless possibilities in a way that - well, that a lot of songwriters do, but that was the first time I thought a song could really contain multitudes.”

Thinking Song Possibility First Time Musical Teenager Songwriting

Author:John K. Samson

“I think of Gord Downie voice as Whitman-esque. He has a poetic voice that contains multitudes, both the suppleness of the instrument of his voice, and just the lyrical boundaries that he pushes, which are really always thrilling to me.”

Thinking Boundaries Poetic Lyrical

Author:John K. Samson

“I always go into listening to a new record by Gord Downie solo or The Tragically Hip and think, "Well, I know what this is going to be, lyrically." Every song starts and then I think, "Oh, I have no idea where that comes from." He has this entirely original voice, both literal and metaphorical.”

Thinking Song Listening Metaphorical

Author:John K. Samson

“That's something I've certainly taken from writers like Gord Downie is that there is a whole potential for breaking out of meter. Even if you don't do it, you're permitted to. He gave a lot of writers permission to do that, to expand and push out the borders of what a rock song can contain.”

Author:John K. Samson

“One of the wonderful things about music these days is that it's less cliqueish.”

Author:John K. Samson

“No one else writes like Gord Downie, so it's difficult to compare him. He can work in the abstract and still somehow be really specific. He lets parts of his consciousness in that most writers aren't able to do, myself included. I don't feel like I have that access to the surreal and the somehow beautifully meaningful non-sequitur - that fits perfectly. I can never figure that out, how he does that.”

Writing Difficult Consciousness Fit Meaningful Compare Abstract Surreal

Author:John K. Samson

“I was listening to this interview with fiction writer George Saunders the other day, and he said something about how the role of a writer is to build a more detailed world. I think it applies to what Gord Downie is doing with his body of work, which is to build a more detailed world and there's something really political about that.”

Thinking World Political Listening

Author:John K. Samson

“A more detailed world is a more complicated and complex one, and therefore a more empathetic one. I feel Gord's Downie lyrics are exceptionally empathetic, or that's what they accomplish. The fact that they can cross all those cultural cliques and boundaries really amplifies that, to me.”

World Complicated Accomplish Boundaries Empathetic Clique

Author:John K. Samson

About the Author

Born: 1973
Known for: Musician
Quotes: 18

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Thinking Song Punk Stills Writing Able Boundaries Difficult Focus Forever

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