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Stephen Malkmus Quotes

Musician

Stephen Malkmus, born on May 30, 1966, is a renowned musician. He is the lead singer and guitarist of the American indie rock band Pavement, known for his unique musical style and lyrical content.

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All People Song Ifs Thinking Knows Kind Band Records Want Way Littles Mean Writing Different Stuff I Can Kids Sound Bits Feels

Famous Stephen Malkmus Quotes

“If a voice is just too nice, without an edge, it kinda all flows by. You forget it. You don't listen to the lyrics.”

Ifs Voice Forget Nice Flow Edges Forget It Too Nice

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“If you have no shame, and it’s your goal to get people into bed, how much higher could your success rate possibly be?”

People Ifs Goal Higher Bed Shame Rate

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“I like a narrative, even if it's fractured, or kind of psychedelic. But my favorite thing is if I hear words and I close my eyes and the connotations or the image I get in my head, combine with the sound of them - sometimes phonetics. I'm just stringing those together.”

Ifs Kind Sometimes Eye Together Sound My Favorite Narrative Psychedelic Favorites Things Connotation Phonetics

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“The best I do, if I'm just playing around and riffing in a fantasy world, and then I'll write something down. Hopefully I write it down.”

Ifs World Writing Fantasy Hopefully Fantasy Worlds Playing Around

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“With lyrics for me, it's usually musically-based. It's not really poetry- or writer-based. It's rock-based. It doesn't mean that I'm aping rock lyrics, but I'm writing from a music standpoint. I'm thinking more of music heroes, if they're in my mind. Not William Blake or John Ashbury. Sometimes maybe I thought of him a little bit. Or Wallace Stevens. I don't even really fully understand either of them.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Mind Mean Littles Sometimes Bits Rocks Hero Little Bit Standpoint Blake

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“Basically, no one else gives me any opinions on lyrics. I don't ask for them. If they did, I would listen.”

Ifs Giving Asks Opinion Give Me

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“If you'd rather learn how to ride a horse or something, I would say do that. That'll keep you out of trouble. You would think a band would get you in trouble, but I think it's the opposite.”

Ifs Thinking Trouble Band Opposites Horse

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“My wife says that I changed people's lives or ways of thinking and that I should always be proud and grateful. If I'm dismissive of what we do sometimes, a little bit, she's like, "I was a fan, you changed my life," or whatever. That's what she says.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Should Littles Sometimes Bits Wife Fans Changed Proud Little Bit Grateful My Wife Be Proud Way Of Thinking Changed My Life You Changed

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“If there can be some paradigm shift thing that you can be part of, that's cool.”

Ifs Paradigm Paradigm Shift

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“I don't know if you look back on your life and just see successes, but probably the first things that pop up are the regrets.”

Ifs Knows Firsts Looks Regret Pops

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“Some people, they've had a lot of fun, even if it was dumb fun and a shitty body of work.”

People Ifs Body Fun Dumb

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“There's probably a certain confidence in your voice, or something, that is validated. You know what I mean? I'm just imagining if people didn't already say that you were cool, that you'd [have] more doubt in what you're doing. That's not so conscious, but that's part of my cosmology now.”

People Ifs Knows Mean Certain Voice Doubt Conscious Cosmology

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“Yeah, on the records, the guitars are made melodic, and I try to make it memorable. There's not much just wanking, to be honest - it's mostly melodic parts. I try not to play too many notes. It's just more instrumental music. It's a totally valid criticism if you don't like that kind of thing. It also is maybe a little anachronistic or unnecessary in a certain way.”

Ifs Way Trying Kind Littles Made Play Certain Records Honest Criticism Yeah Notes Guitar Being Honest Memorable Unnecessary Instrumental Music

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“If someone's really busy listening to other CDs, and worried about what's new and what's truly relevant for discourse now, maybe it isn't that interesting. To me it is, because I'm tuned into that and that's what I like, so it's interesting to me. It's all I can do.”

Ifs I Can Can Do Interesting Listening Busy Worried Relevant Discourse Cds Listening To Others

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“I would just imagine there's a criticism for just about everything, if you want to take something down. No one's invincible. The Jicks are a work in progress and we don't think everything we do is the bee's knees or something, we're just trying our best to get turned on by what we're doing.”

Ifs Thinking Want Trying Imagine Progress Criticism Knees Bees Invincible Work In Progress Trying Our Best

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“You can change the world, but if no one's listening, it doesn't matter.”

Ifs World Matter Listening Changing The World

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“I think most musicians know if they make the same record twice, even if they say they don't.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Records Musician

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“Everyone wants to be loved, generally. If you released a record and nobody said anything, if you didn't get any feedback from people you don't know, i.e. the press, you'd be sort of upset. To me, any press is good press.”

People Ifs Knows Want Said Records Presses Upset Feedback

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.”

Ifs Real Rocks Band Supporter Indie Rock Good Bands

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“I'm not sure if you can blame everything on the American way of life, but the United States are big. So, if you have a lot of people there, the percentage of stupid people is bound to be higher.”

People Ifs Way States Bigs United United States Stupid Higher Blame Bounds Not Sure Percentages Stupid People American Way Of Life

Author:Stephen Malkmus

“If you want to be negative about the whole thing you can say all guitar bands after the Beatles were just a waste of time because the Beatles were the best. I think it's far better to give new records a try.”

Ifs Thinking Want Giving Trying Whole Records Band Waste Negative Guitar Wasting Time

Author:Stephen Malkmus

About the Author

Born: May 30, 1966
Known for: Musician
Quotes: 115

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