“In a way, the whole music industry is just catering to the inherent esteem issues all these artists have - it lays it all out on the line and baits the artist, like a light baits a mosquito. And you go right into it. With every comment on the internet, you go up, you go down, and it's a big shitshow full of uneducated people.” PeopleWayWholeBigsLightArtistLinesIssuesIndustryInternetDown AndLaysEsteemCommentInherentMusic IndustryBaitUneducatedMosquitoesCatering Author:Willis Earl Beal
“Everything is this distorted mishmash of pop culture that pulls from this era and that era and is just thrown at the wall. These people have no clue what anything really means. There are guys out there getting a million hits for a video.” PeopleMeanGuyCultureMillionsWallPopsVideoErasThrownCluePop CultureReally Mean Author:Willis Earl Beal
“People tend to believe that I want to make soul music, which is not entirely untrue but, really, I want to be like the black Tom Waits - I don't want to make one kind of sound.” PeopleWantBelieveKindSoulWaitingSoundBlackTomsUntrueMusic Soul Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I would much rather not be the center of attention, and I'd much rather travel and be writing my novel, rather than standing on a stage and trying to get people to understand something.” PeopleWritingTryingAttentionNovelStageStandingCenter Of Attention Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I feel totally disconnected from reality in Washington. Maybe I'm just really pretentious - in fact, I probably am - but I feel like people in this city have no idea about where their reality is coming from and who is helping them to live in this illusion. I've gone from the south side of Chicago, where everyone is completely unrealistic about what's important in life to a place like this, where people are still unrealistic about what's important, but it's on two opposite sides of the spectrum. I just get tired of it all. It makes me really, really angry.” PeopleImportantHelpingRealityIllusionTiredPretentious Author:Willis Earl Beal
“What I'm trying to do is paint a picture of an atypical human being going through all of the existential struggles, but all the while realizing the carnality and small things, because I like minutiae a lot. All the while knowing that it's a forest - knowing that none of it means anything. I think if more people understood that, they would just go ahead and kill themselves like they're gonna do anyway, but do it quickly as opposed to hanging out and using up resources. Don't just sit around criticizing other people and wasting time. I do that, but I'm not really skilled in any other way.” PeopleThinkingTryingMeanRealizingStrugglePaintCriticizeHanging OutWasting TimeExistentialSmall Things Author:Willis Earl Beal
“One of my struggles is that I'm a glutton. There's always those very simple, long, old-ass things, but they're very real to me, and I'm sitting in them, and they're swirling in my mind all the time. I tell people about it and they think, "Why don't you just go and make some money, go get a big-screen TV, or look at the Internet." Or they say, "Go create some introspective art." I just want to explode. I don't know how everybody else is able to walk around so calm. It's amazing to me when I see people walking so calmly down the street. I envy them, but I also kind of hate them.” PeopleThinkingMindKindLongArtRealHateSimpleStruggleInternetWalkingCalmEnvyIntrospectiveMy Struggle Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I don't think talent has anything to do with inspiration. Inspiration creates talent. People prioritize innate talent too much. It gives them license to walk around and act like assholes. I think I straddle a line between being innately talented and having had to put in some work. You ever go to a party where there are a lot of creative people and they feel like they have license to just act any kind of way? I'm not really a moral person myself, but they just tend to never ever be sincere because they believe their art or the fact that they are artists makes them holy in some way.” PeopleThinkingGivingBelieveKindArtInspirationArtistPartyMoralCreativeTalentHolySincereCreative PeoplePrioritize Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I'm very curious about people, and one of the most difficult truths for me to accept as a person is that I'll never be anyone else, and I will never fully understand anyone's perspective other than my own. Because I've come to some understanding of that, I feel it's this very difficult but worthwhile challenge to get as close as I possible can to that. If the only way that we can do that is through language, then that's how it has to be done.” PeopleDoneLanguageDifficultUnderstandingChallengesAcceptingPerspectiveCurious Author:Willis Earl Beal
“It always fascinates me how you can get so much joy listening to another person, when me, personally, I can only listen to myself and my music these days. I've got some people in my iPod, but I only listen to myself. I'm folding into myself and I used to think that that was what you're supposed to do - you're supposed to reject everyone else and figure out who you are. You get little shards and points of reference, but that's how you confirm that only you know what is right for you. Everything else is pollution. What's starting to happen to me is sort of an identity crisis.” PeopleThinkingJoyIdentityListeningCrisisWho You ArePollution Author:Willis Earl Beal
“Sometimes I wish it were a simpler world. I love and hate people. When I say I hate people, I really truly mean it. Sometimes I think everyone should be dead, that the animals would be better off without people. But sometimes I go into the square and I look at all the people passing me by and it fulfills me -as long as they don't bother me. As long as they just walk past and don't ask me for anything, it's fine. I almost wish I could think about it in a mundane way.” PeopleThinkingWorldMeanLongSometimesPastHateWishAnimalI HateBotherAsk MeMundaneLove And HateHate PeopleI Hate People Author:Willis Earl Beal
“If the only thing that you want to do is make money - if that's your whole motivation - I think you're lying to yourself. If the only motivation you have is to make money and make it, what's making it? Oh, you get a yacht or an island. Well, you're going to need someone to be on that island. You're going to need people, one way or another.” PeopleThinkingLyingMotivationMaking MoneyYacht Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I think the best way to listen to my music is through recording. I would love to be one of those artists where you can go into a coffee shop and watch people pass by and then my music is in their ears. Not necessarily a sensory deprivation thing, but that's cool too. Unfortunately in order to focus on nobody else, you would probably have to go into a dark room and just sit there and listen to it.” PeopleThinkingArtistDarkFocusMusic IsCoffeeCoffee Shop Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I think that live music is really pretentious - all of it. I hate festivals and live shows, because as soon as I get on stage, I start performing for people and it becomes about sex, banter, and skill. They're looking at me and not thinking about themselves. I'm thinking about how cool I look. It's just stupid - all live music is really stupid. I wouldn't encourage going to see anybody live, ever. Not even me.” PeopleThinkingHateStupidMusic IsI HatePerformingPretentiousReally Stupid Author:Willis Earl Beal
“Music didn't really occur to me. Michael Jordan and Batman were my favorite two entities then. Michael Jackson was there, but I didn't really get into Bob Dylan, for instance, until I was in my 20s. The record I heard of his that got me interested in singing was Knocked Out Loaded, which is what many people consider to be his worst record.” PeopleWorstSingingMy FavoriteDylan Author:Willis Earl Beal
“You got this new breed of hipster chicks and hipster men that don't understand anything about sacrifice. They didn't lay it on the line. People like Cat Power, Tom Waits, they are the last of the beats, the real true philosophers.” PeopleMenRealWaitingSacrificeCatPhilosopherHipster Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I want to help people to not feel alone, like I feel and have felt for so long. Everybody's just trying their best. I guess I'm like an anti-star.” PeopleTryingLongHelping Author:Willis Earl Beal
“I don't know what people want. I have delusions of grandeur, but I'm not sitting here talking to you and thinking that I'm the goddamn President. I want to know everything, but I just can't.” PeopleThinkingPresidentDelusion Author:Willis Earl Beal
