“I've never been really interested in music, classical or otherwise, where the craft is more important than the result. I realized quickly that I'd never be a technical electronic musician.” ImportantResultsMusicianI RealizedCraftsElectronic Music Author:Anna Meredith
“I don't really care what music's made on - I love guitars, but I'm fine with great electronic music.” MadeCareFineGuitarElectronic Music Author:Johnny Marr
“We always get back to old soul singers like Nina Simone, and how her recordings sound. Also new music like Tobacco, or people that use a mixture of analog and electronic music.” PeopleSoulUseSoundSingersGet BackMixturesTobaccoNew MusicElectronic MusicNinaOld SoulAnalog Author:Jose Gonzalez
“I don't remember explaining that I was making electronic music to anyone, but I don't remember anyone being curious about it, either.” RememberCuriousExplainingElectronic Music Author:Nicolas Jaar
“Electronic music is so weird because trends change so fast.” Music IsTrendsElectronic Music Author:Chaz Bundick
“I do it live on tape with a band. It's not like I'm doing electronic music with a laptop.” BandTapeLaptopsElectronic Music Author:Lykke Li
“Nowadays, especially when you think of electronic music, it's like, the producer is mostly the one who makes the music or the beats and everything. But I am more, since I'm that old, when I started to make music the producer was just sitting in the back shouting and drinking beer.” ThinkingBeatsSittingDrinkingProducersBeerShoutingDrinking BeerElectronic Music Author:Karin Dreijer Andersson
“The great thing about the electronic music scene is that everybody can be part of it either by dancing, DJing, or organizing a party.” PartySceneDancingGreat ThingsElectronic Music Author:Pedro Winter
“To me a lot of electronic music out there is too serious. I'm a bit fed up with DJs who take themselves too seriously and don't smile.” BitsSeriousFedsDjsFed UpElectronic Music Author:Pedro Winter
“People call me a bedroom electronic musician, which I suppose I am. But I hate most electronic music; I find it really boring.” PeopleHateMusicianI HateBoringCall MeBedroomElectronic Music Author:Max Tundra
“We have always been thinking about different ways to perform electronic music, i.e. music made with machines.” ThinkingWayMadeDifferentMachinesDifferent WaysElectronic Music Author:Thomas Bangalter
“We come from a generation that wanted to make electronic music accepted, at a time [when] it was not.” WantedGenerationsAcceptedElectronic Music Author:Thomas Bangalter
“The place of electronic music, culturally and socially, is today completely different - it is now everywhere, and it has been totally accepted. Consequently, there is now a younger generation that is more focused on making great electronic music, good parties, and having fun, where there is not any more so much need for cultural and ideological statements in electronic music itself.” NeedsHas BeensDifferentTodayFunPartyGenerationsFocusedAcceptedStatementsHaving FunIdeologicalYounger GenerationElectronic MusicGood Party Author:Thomas Bangalter
“I'm a real big electronic music nut; when I was young I listened to musique concrète, German music from Cologne in the early 50s, all kinds of stuff.” KindRealBigsYoungStuffAll KindsNutsElectronic MusicCologne Author:Keith Fullerton Whitman
“I love collecting; my joy is finding private press American or European home studio electronic music from the 60s and 70s.” HomeJoyFindingsPressesStudiosCollectingElectronic Music Author:Keith Fullerton Whitman
“I'm really excited about the remixes. I've always been a fan of electronic music and I'm thinking about that very seriously for the next record as well.” ThinkingWellsNextRecordsFansExcitedElectronic MusicRemix Author:Matt Tong
“I think a lot people get caught up with the synthetic quality of electronic music, but me, I've always been more interested in all those more natural sounds, in organic electricity. That's something that I want to continue to work with.” PeopleThinkingWantSoundNaturalQualityCaughtElectricityCaught UpElectronic MusicSynthetic Author:Patrick Wolf
“I wanted to make something that raised questions and was completely different and challenged the way most people experienced electronic music. So some people don't like me; that's OK.” PeopleWayDifferentWantedRaisedLike MeElectronic MusicDon't Like Me Author:Casey Spooner
“A lot of festivals can be a jumble of electronic music and rock and roll, and everything's all mixed up - some things are more performance art or light shows or dance parties, and then you'll have a singer-songwriter stuck in the middle to make the changeovers easier.” ArtShowsLightPartyMiddleRocksEasierPerformancesSingersStuckSongwritersRock And RollFestivalsSinger SongwritersElectronic MusicPerformance ArtStuck In The MiddleDance Party Author:Jenny O.
“The 80s were deranged. People had all these liberties all of a sudden and all the freedom in the world, the Less Than Zero sort of themes that came from that period, I think electronic music works very well for that whole idiom.” PeopleThinkingWorldWellsWholeLibertyPeriodsThemeZero80sElectronic MusicIdiomDerangedLess Than Zero Author:Sam de Jong
“People from the rock and roll world have felt for years that electronic music had no soul, but now electronic music can not only have soul but have all the shapes in the world.” PeopleWorldYearsSoulFeltRocksShapesRock And RollCan NotElectronic Music Author:Bjork
“My big problem is that I don't promote my electronic music very much because it makes my 'normal' fans angry!” ProblemBigsFansNormalAngryBig ProblemsElectronic Music Author:Suzanne Ciani
“I turn on the radio now and I don't have anything against a lot of sequenced and programmed and electronic music, a lot of it is dope and it's the future. It's what popular music has evolved to.” TurnsRadioTurn-onDopeElectronic MusicPopular Music Author:Eric Benet
“In the '60s my friends were interested and we were hearing electronic music coming in on community radio from Europe, so that's where it started. And I had a tape recorder and started making things with it.” CommunityMy FriendsEuropeRadioHearingTapeElectronic MusicRecorders Author:Pauline Oliveros
“I had invented my own system, my own way of making electronic music at the San Francisco Tape Music Centre, and I was using what is now referred to as a classical electronic music studio, consisting of tube oscillators and patch bays. There were no mixers or synthesizers. So I managed to figure out how to make the oscillators sing. I used a tape delay system using two tape recorders and stringing the tape between the two tape machines and being able to configure the tracks coming back in different ways.” WayTwoDifferentAbleUsedMy OwnFiguresMachinesTrackStudiosDifferent WaysTapeCentreDelayComing BackSan FranciscoPatchesTubesElectronic MusicRecordersSynthesizers Author:Pauline Oliveros
“First of all I had to teach myself how to use the studio because there wasn't any classes in electronic music. So I'd stay there all night and leave in the morning, observe the sun rise and have a lot of different kinds of sounds in my mind. But it was a quest, it was a search. It was research, it was learning.” MindFirstsKindDifferentUseNightSoundClassTeachMorningSunResearchStudiosDifferent KindsQuestsAll NightElectronic MusicSun Rise Author:Pauline Oliveros
“It's good to listen to electronic music when you're stressed out because you will feel a release afterwards.” FeelsReleaseStressedElectronic MusicStressed Out Author:Seungri
“My start came with experimental musicians and live bands. I never played with DJ's because it wasn't really the correct fit. It fit in more with someone using a laptop to create their own electronic music. When you're doing music like that, it's hard to get more than 20 people to come to your show.” PeopleHardShowsFitBandMusicianDjsLaptopsElectronic Music Author:Girl Talk
“I grew up with classical music, and to a lesser extent electronic music, and that's where I belong, so to speak.” SpeakGrewGrew UpClassical MusicElectronic Music Author:Varg Vikernes
“I am definitely pro-European, even pro-global, and house music and electronic music has developed a network all over the world, between record shops in Berlin, Tokyo, London, Chicago, Minneapolis and L.A. That's really what I feel part of, rather than being French.” WorldFeelsHouseRecordsLondonShopsChicagoBerlinTokyoElectronic MusicHouse MusicMinneapolis Author:Thomas Bangalter
“I'm definitely not a laptop/midi/abelton guy. But there is a lot of music I like. I really like Bach organ music. I really like Chopin piano music. I really like Wendy Carlo's electronic music. I really like Miles Davis and John Mclaughlin jazz style. So I'm not only an old-school rocker, but I have to admit that I'm going to be listening to The Doors, Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Bob Dylan many times a week.” SchoolGuyDoorsWeekStyleListeningStonesJazzPopsMilesPianoBobOrgansRollingDylanRolling StonesOld SchoolLaptopsElectronic MusicBowieRockersWendyPiano MusicMidi Author:Gordon Raphael
“What I find the challenge is with working with, say, digital machines - performing electronic music - is that when we play instruments there's a physical act that results in a physical vibration. There's a mapping between our exertions and resultant vibrations, or resonance.” ChallengesPerformingElectronic Music Author:Vijay Iyer
“With electronic music it's often a little more hidden - the relationship between gesture and sound - which makes it confounding for audiences. But the ingredients of electronic music are the same ingredients of nonelectronic music.” AudienceElectronic Music Author:Vijay Iyer
“What we call music is what reminds us of ourselves. And sometimes electronic music helps lead the imagination to a space that seems outside of ourselves. But it never really is.” SometimesHelpingImaginationMusic IsElectronic Music Author:Vijay Iyer
“I think a lot of electronic musicians are drawn to starting with texture because the whole reason we're working with electronics is to try to create new sounds or sounds that cannot be created acoustically. When you're doing that, it's nice to be able to just create a different palette for every single song. I feel like a lot of electronic music sounds like...Each album sounds like a compilation more than it does a band.” ThinkingTryingDifferentReasonSongNiceMusicianElectronic Music Author:Dan Deacon
“I think for a classical musician the goal is the same as an electronic musician. A very good professional classical musician must not think about technique.” ThinkingGoalMusicianVery GoodClassical MusicElectronic Music Author:Gregor Schwellenbach
“Composers are influenced by all the important music in their lives - and I suppose that since radio started playing popular music, that's as likely to be The Beatles or Aphex Twin as it is to be Verdi or Ravel. They'd be strange teenagers if they didn't. But cross-pollinating happens too - Aphex Twin did more interesting things with electronic music than most trained composers, who seemed to approach samplers with undue caution and reverence in those early days.” ImportantInterestingStrangeTeenagerReverenceComposerTwinsCautionElectronic MusicPopular Music Author:Jonny Greenwood
“People always focus on people like me who use synthesizers, right, which are explicitly electronic and therefore obvious. "Ah, yes, that's electronic music." But they don't realize that so is the concept of actually taking a piece of extant music and literally re-collaging it, taking chunks out and changing the dynamics radically and creating new rhythmic structures with echo and all that. That's real electronic music, as far as I'm concerned.” PeopleRealRealizingFocusConcernedObviousElectronic Music Author:Brian Eno
“I think what's made electronic music so fascinating is that it came up through the underground and always moved and pivoted so quickly that you could never keep a handle on it. That continues to happen. Sure, the stuff on the very top moves slower and is marketed for Spotify. But there are still going to be undercurrents that flow freely and move around, simply because there's too much of a base with this music.” ThinkingMovingMovedElectronic Music Author:Kaskade
“I think as this generation of electronic musicians goes on, popular electronic music will be more and more accepted. It's gonna get less confusing. You know, most people called rap stupid when it started, and it was one of the most innovative music forms of its time.” PeopleThinkingStupidMusicianRapAcceptedConfusingInnovativeElectronic Music Author:Dan Deacon
“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.” ThinkingTryingForgetInterestingEvolutionMelodyRevivalElectronic MusicPercussion Author:Patrick Watson
“I've always enjoyed dancing and going clubbing. I've always been interested in electronic music. I would love more than anything to see my music mutate into something that would be played in clubs. For sure.” DancingElectronic Music Author:KT Tunstall
“America and Europe are getting closer to each other. In the U.S. you've always had hip - hop, the blues, soul, and rock. For the last decade, there has always been a lot of electronic music in Europe. When I was just at Coachella, I noticed how the music they play there has become electronic, techno, deep house, more European - so I think it's more similar than before.” ThinkingSoulHouseElectronic Music Author:Erik Hassle
“When I was doing mainly music, I used to stick a microphone out the window, into the countryside, and create a live mix. I wanted to put air in electronic music. I record the sounds of twigs, barks, and stones. I've always been obsessed with the idea of combining the natural and the man-made. It's not because I think the technology is crap, or that I'm trying to work against it, but that juxtaposition is truly beautiful. The question of what is natural and unnatural is very open.” ThinkingTryingBeautifulNaturalTechnologyWindowObsessedCrapCountrysideElectronic Music Author:Mira Calix
“With most electronic music I hear now, the things I like will be the things that have soul. It has to have a feeling in it, where it feels warm, or feels epic. I like to play with that in my music as well, there will always be a piano chord or something underneath it to make you feel at home. I always try and make sure even with vocals and layering that you still feel like you know me, no matter whether you're into grime or hip hop.” TryingSoulFeelingsHomeLike YouHip HopKnow MeEpicElectronic Music Author:Naomi Klein
“I've been making electronic music since I was 12. I was making music as soon as I knew how to make sounds on a piano. My parents had a baby grand, and the piano is still my favorite instrument. I look at it as a songwriting machine.” ParentBabyMy FavoriteSongwritingElectronic Music Author:Travis Stewart
“Everybody has their own approach to songwriting. When you're an electronic musician, the whole writing process just depends. Some people have a very live way of writing electronic music, very improvisational. They set up a lot of gear and do live takes. I'm concerned with having a specific kind of sound. There's not one second that I haven't put thought into. I put almost as much time into my live shows as I do into writing music, but they're two completely different processes. Some people think the way I perform live is how I write songs, which isn't true at all.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindDifferentSongMusicianConcernedSongwritingWriting ProcessElectronic Music Author:Travis Stewart
“You come out of doing that kind of side of electronic music, you're gonna take that knowledge with you and not ignore it. That'd be ridiculous to spend 10 years on something and not use that as an influence.” KindInfluenceRidiculousElectronic Music Author:Jez Williams
“All my favorite artists are downtempo - Portishead, Burial, a lot of 1990s trip-hop. Some people are saying that I'm trying to help with the trip-hop revival that's possibly going on, but I'm not aware of other artists that are necessarily doing that. But if they are, that's fantastic. It's a great medium of electronic music. There's a lot of emotion - it's good for soundtracking a late-night drive.” PeopleTryingHelpingArtistEmotionMy FavoriteFantasticRevivalBurialElectronic Music Author:Mister Lies
“I love synthesizers and I love electronic music and I love the avant garde and I always want to try and have some kind of element of that in the music. So once the music is put down and recorded, that's when I start to tinker with it using synths.” TryingKindMusic IsElectronic Music Author:David W. Marsden