“I don't really think of these as projects. I think of them as bands. I have tried to not just convene a group of musicians and make one record or make one gig and just drop it. Each of them develop over time. I have been really fortunate to keep a band like the Sextet together over three very different albums. Each time, the goal got more deep for me in terms of how I wanted to write for those people. So it is really about trying to develop ideas and trying to have a consistent focus on a way to come up with new ideas in music that I want to do.” PeopleThinkingWayWantWritingTryingHas BeensIdeasDifferentWantedTogetherThreeGoalTermRecordsFocusGroupsBandProjectsMusicianCome UpAlbumsFortunateConsistentNew IdeasGigs Author:Dave Douglas
“When I started making films I just decided "I'm the filmmaking equivalent of a garage band and I'll just make my garage band movies." But even the same musicians from garage bands would go to my movies and you could tell what they liked from the way that they dressed and they would be the first ones to walk out.” WayFirstsWould BeFilmWalksBandMusicianDecidedFilmmakingGarage Author:Guy Maddin
“I love those moments on stage, on screen and in life when you dispense with language, when you sort of transcend it in a way, and certainly the experience of falling in love, I think, defies words, which is why poets, painters, musicians, actors have tried to describe that feeling, writers have just tried to put words to that.” ThinkingWayMomentsFeelingsFallActorsLanguageStagePoetMusicianFalling In LoveScreensPainter Author:Cate Blanchett
“I tried to make guitars that were close to what my heroes played. That's the way it's done. My experience is that you have to do it like a musician. You have to learn the language before you can learn to be a novelist.” WayDoneLanguageHeroMusicianGuitarNovelistsMy Hero Author:Paul Reed Smith
“As a filmmaker‚ like any artist‚ when something affects me emotionally I think about it in those terms. It's my way of dealing with my thoughts‚ my fears and my hardships. I think the same can be said with any artist. For a musician‚ you're going to write a song about something that affects you emotionally.” ThinkingWayWritingSaidArtistSongTermMusicianMy WayFilmmakerHardshipMy Thoughts Author:Ryan Coogler
“I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win - if you don't, you won't.” IfsWayInspirationalHardLife IsWinningEffortBusinessStrengthHard WorkMusicianAthletePreparationMotivational SportsBusinessman Author:Bruce Jenner
“Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of transmitting the music to someone who can play it, releasing it into the air where it can once more be heard. And the black alphabet marks on the page represent words that were once spoken, if only in the writer's head. They lie there inert until a reader comes along and transforms the letters into living sounds. The reader is the musician of the book: each reader may read the same text, just as each violinist plays the same piece, but each interpretation is different.” IfsWayMayBookDifferentPlayLyingSoundBlackVoicePiecesHeardAirReaderMusicianPagesLettersMarkMusicalScoreInterpretationFrozenAlphabetViolinist Author:Margaret Atwood
“I don't think being a musician makes me a role model at all. But I do believe that I have responsibility to offer people a helping hand when and if I can, just the same way that others have helped me. I think that it's important to keep that cycle going, and to give back to whatever your personal definition of community is.” PeopleIfsThinkingWayGivingBelieveI CanImportantHelpingHandsCommunityResponsibilityRolesOffersMusicianModelsDefinitionsCyclesRole ModelsGiving BackHelping Hand Author:Thalia Zedek
“I mean, roots musicians - we can get old, you know? We can get up there and wear overalls and deliver the songs, we don't have to look any certain way.” KnowsWayLooksMeanCertainSongMusicianRootsGet UpOld YouOveralls Author:Valerie June
“I don't think that those things [so called common practice] ever truly existed in the way that we like to believe that they do, the way we learn about them in music history class. Those things are defined at least decades after they happen. And even then, it's a fallacy because when you're in the moment, when you're in a thriving scene of musicians, inevitably everyone is going to be doing something completely different from everyone else” ThinkingWayBelieveDifferentMomentsHappensCommonClassPracticeSceneMusicianDecadesDefinedFallacyHistory Class Author:Missy Mazzoli
“The only way that Hollywood ever skews toward liberal is because part of what we make out of Hollywood involves writers, actors, directors, musicians, set designers, and photographers. In general, people like that are going to be more progressive, more open minded, a little more altruistic.” PeopleWayLittlesActorsDirectorsMusicianHollywoodPhotographerDesignerProgressiveOpen MindOpen MindedMake Out Author:Adam McKay
“Music was literally in the air at the time, the Vienna of 1780. Everybody played music, classical music. There were in fact so many musicians that in apartment buildings people had to come up with a schedule - you practice at 5 p.m., I'll practice at 6 p.m. That way the music didn't collide with one another.” PeopleWayFactsPracticeAirBuildingMusicianCome UpApartmentSchedulesClassical MusicViennaCollide Author:Eric Weiner
“In a personal way, to do with family and the father-son relationship, in a kind of artistic way with regard to him being an art student. I also studied the visual arts at Lancaster University. I then decided to become an actor as he was becoming a musician. And then as an actor/performer, we have similar sort of interests - music hall and that whole world. So, there's a lot that I felt connected with.” WorldWayKindArtWholeActorsFatherFeltInterestStudentsSonBecomingMusicianDecidedRegardUniversityConnectedWhole WorldArtisticVisualsHallsPerformersFather SonVisual ArtArt StudentsLancasterFather Son RelationshipMusic Hall Author:Andy Serkis
“It's very interesting for me to listen to music with my wife. She's not a musician but she very often makes comments about pieces in ways that are similar to what I'm thinking.” ThinkingWayInterestingPiecesWifeMusicianMy WifeCommentVery InterestingListening To Music Author:Paul Lansky
“I just look up to anyone who made music back then because you really had to be a musician. There were no samples or drum machines. Those people back in the day paved the way for people like me.” PeopleWayLooksMadeMusicianMachinesLike MeLook UpSampleBack In The Day Author:Rahki
“I feel like I'm struggling now, and nearly every musician I know feels that way - even the most successful ones. I realize that I'm very lucky, but I still feel like I could be doing so much better.” KnowsWayFeelsStillsRealizingStruggleSuccessfulLuckyMusician Author:Eleanor Friedberger
“I'm such a copycat."I want to try and do this like the Donovan song 'Changes'," or "I want to do this bit from Van Morrison." I don't know how else to illustrate something, because I'm not a super-great musician. In that way, I'm more like the producer.” KnowsWayWantTryingSongBitsKnow HowMusicianProducersVansGreat MusicianCopycats Author:Eleanor Friedberger
“I moved to Portland because Modest Mouse is there. I didn't necessarily mean to live there permanently, but I've got a really good feeling for it. The sensibility there really suits me. I happened to have grown up in Manchester, a city that was a pretty cool place to be a musician. It's close to Portland in a lot of ways.” WayMeanFeelingsCitiesHappenedMusicianMovedSuitsSensibilityModestMiceManchesterGood FeelingPortlandCool Places Author:Johnny Marr
“It's important me as a musician and also as an occasional show goer to feel the presence of a band on stage, to hear a PA reverberating and slapping off the walls, the push and pull of an audience, the blood, sweat, and heat. It's a primal thing in a way.” WayFeelsImportantShowsAudienceBloodStageWallBandMusicianHeatSweatOccasionalPrimalOff The WallSlapping Author:Jacob Bannon
“Sometimes, I think the way the music business has been destructive and the way the fans are been put through it and try to navigate through it, so much is so foreign to what musicians would actually want to do or what would be natural to them.” ThinkingWayWantTryingHas BeensSometimesWould BeNaturalFansMusicianDestructiveMusic BusinessNavigate Author:Beck
“I started thinking, my gosh, all this sophisticated software for measuring how Yo-Yo plays, and how he moves and this technique of the bow, I should be able to use similar techniques for measuring the way anybody moves, and so somebody who is not a professional or a trained musician, I should be able to make a musical environment for them.” ThinkingWayShouldPlayUseAbleMovingEnvironmentMusicianMusicalTechniqueSoftwareBowsSophisticatedMeasuring Author:Tod Machover
“Comedy is like music, and the way to make the best music is to have skilled musicians in your band.” WayComedyBandMusicianMusic Is Author:Rashida Jones
“When I lived in New York, there wasn't as much TV or film around. I got asked to do a couple of indie films, just based on me being from The Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle. I did a couple of indie movies from Japan and one from Canada, and I thought it was an exciting, fun thing to do. I had a great time doing it, it was just that, in New York, there really wasn't as much. My studio in New York closed, so I moved out to L.A. and just started looking into composing as another thing to do, as a musician. I like it a lot. It's fun and it's a different way of thinking about music.” ThinkingWayDifferentFilmFunPerfectNew YorkTvsCoupleMusicianExcitingMovedStudiosCirclesDifferent WaysThings To DoCanadaJapanWay Of ThinkingGreat TimesComposingPumpkinFun ThingsSmashingHad A Great TimeIndie FilmsSmashing PumpkinsIndie Movie Author:James Iha
“Composers are in some ways the last frontier of musician that gets a paycheck for their musical services.” WayLastsMusicianMusicalComposerFrontiersPaychecks Author:Cliff Martinez
“I play classical music almost exclusively. I never mastered jazz or gospel in the way that my mother did. She was a fine improvisational musician. I pretty much have to stick to what's written on the page.” WayPlayMotherWrittenFineMusicianPagesSticksJazzClassical Music Author:Condoleezza Rice
“Scientists contribute in a variety of ways and I don't think I can singular one even including [Albert] Einstein, that I can say that he's the best. We don't work like the best basketball player and the best musician and so on. Science is a collective effort.” ThinkingWayI CanEffortPlayerBasketballMusicianScientistIncludingVarietyCollectivesBasketball PlayerBest BasketballCollective Effort Author:Ahmed H. Zewail
“We're [with Robbie Robertson ] jazz musicians. The context may be rock 'n' roll but it's still jazz. It's jazz and that means improvization...you play a tune the way it feels and you play it differently every time. It can never be the same.” WayFeelsMayMeanStillsPlayRocksMusicianJazzTunesRock N RollJazz MusicJazz Musician Author:Van Morrison
“Because I'm a musician aspiring to write good stuff and put on good shows, I'm hyperaware of what they're doing and what they're putting out. But listening now in a less critical way, I'm appreciating and admiring it even more.” WayWritingShowsStuffListeningMusicianAppreciateCriticalAdmiring Author:Sarah Harmer
“I’m not saying that maybe there isn’t a kid out there whose behavior hasn’t been influenced by me in some way. I’m sure there is. But I can only speak for myself, and if you’d asked if my behavior had ever been affected by people I’d admired from afar, like musicians or footballers, that’d be a yes, totally.” PeopleIfsWayI CanKidsSpeakBehaviorMusicianAffectedFootballerAfar Author:Pete Doherty
“Musicians communicate in other ways. That's just something you rely on.” WayMusicianCommunicateRely Author:Ry Cooder
“There actually had been a tradition within English music of the '60s of people looking eastwards, maybe in quite a naïve way, but nonetheless, you had musicians like George Harrison or Bryan Jones recording the musicians of Joujouka in North Africa.” PeopleWayMusicianTraditionBryanNorth AfricaEnglish Music Author:Justin Adams
“I have got to look at the flip side of things, because, in a way, music is always a conversation, you know? It's a conversation between the musician and their tools and their technologies.” KnowsWayLooksSidesTechnologyConversationMusicianMusic IsToolsFlip Author:DJ /rupture
“I often call Daptone the Motown and Stax of today. But in some ways it's different. At Motown, a lot of the musicians didn't get recognized, music got stolen, and people didn't get paid. Or the label would just throw them a pinch of money for their songs. That is one thing we're not doing. Anything anyone writes here, we get a percentage.” PeopleWayWritingDifferentTodaySongOne ThingMusicianPaidLabelsStolenPercentagesMotown Author:Sharon Jones
“When you hear the melodic structures of what classical musicians put together and you compare it to that of a rock & roll record, there's a hell of a long way rock & roll has to go.” WayLongTogetherHellRecordsRocksMusicianStructureCompareLong WayClassical MusicClassical Musicians Author:Jimmy Page
“At a certain age I just stopped arguing. I realized that there was no way [my father] could see, because for him to approve of what I was doing, he would have to have some belief in me as a musician.” WayAgeCertainFatherBeliefMusicianArguingI Realized Author:George Michael
“The thing is, autism is a big spectrum. Going from folks who remain nonverbal, all the way up to, ya know, famous scientists and musicians. And we've got to work on strengths. We also have to work on teaching basic manners and skills.” KnowsWayBigsTeachingSkillsMusicianScientistFolksMannersAutismSpectrumNonverbal Author:Temple Grandin
“Patti [ Scialfa] was an artist and a musician and she was a songwriter. And she was a lot like me in that she was transient also. She worked busking on the streets in New York. She waitressed. She had - she just lived a life - she lived a musician's life. She lived an artist's life. So we were both people who were very uncomfortable in a domestic setting, getting together and trying to build one and seeing if our particularly strange jigsaw puzzle pieces were going to fit together in a way that was going to create something different for the two of us. And it did.” PeopleIfsWayTryingTwoDifferentTogetherArtistPiecesSeeingStreetsNew YorkStrangeFitMusicianSettingLike MeSettingsUncomfortableSongwritersPuzzlesTransientJust LiveTwo Of UsJigsawJigsaw PuzzlesPuzzle PieceBusking Author:Bruce Springsteen
“After seeing what I have seen on my journey, my advice to upcoming musicians would have to be... always have your vision in sight. Do music the way you envisioned yourself doing music no matter what it cost.” WayMatterVisionSeeingJourneyAdviceCostMusicianSightNo Matter WhatMy Journey Author:Chronixx
“There's something I have about being Canadian - there's a distance it gives you when you live in the States and operate in American culture. You approach familiar things a different way; you come at it from a different angle. It's a trait that runs through a lot Canadian artists' work and actors' work and musicians' - that kind of special remove.” WayGivingKindDifferentStatesRunningArtistCultureActorsSpecialApproachMusicianDistanceFamiliarDifferent WaysRemoveTraitsAngleAmerican CultureDifferent AnglesFamiliar Things Author:Michael J. Fox
“If you're a musician, you create what you love and hope other people love it as well. Amongst musicians, the starting point is what they love, and then they bring people to them. As a comedian, you have to say something that people relate to, or nobody laughs. As an actor, you have to perform the character in the way that people relate to.” PeopleIfsWayWellsCharacterActorsLaughingMusicianStartingRelateComedianWhat You LoveStarting PointHope And Love Author:John Bishop
“Every time we give a musician the advice to give away the music and sell the T-shirt, we're saying, "Don't make your living in this more elevated way. Instead, reverse this social progress, and choose a more physical way to make a living." We're sending them to peasanthood, very much like the Maoists have.” WayGivingSocialProgressAdviceMusicianSellsShirtsReverseT ShirtSocial Progress Author:Jaron Lanier
“It's a radical time for musicians, a really revolutionary time, and I believe revolutions like Napster are a lot more fun than cash, which by the way we don't have at major labels anyway, so we might as well get with it and get in the game.” WayBelieveWellsMightGamesFunI BelieveRevolutionMajorsMusicianRadicalLabelsRevolutionaryCashNapster Author:Courtney Love
“The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else.” WayWellsUnderstandingRolesMusicianConceptsCommunicateRock N RollExecutionAnother Way Author:Yo-Yo Ma
“I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.” WayGivingInspiringWallMusicianHittingGiving Way Author:Gustav Mahler
“These people are artists. These people are musicians. They're taking it out and trying to express it that way.” PeopleWayTryingArtistMusician Author:Marilyn Manson
“Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.” WayStillsFunnyCoursesMusicPositionMusicianTreatsJazzTreatedBlues Music Author:Count Basie
“The good thing about working alone is I get a lot done and I can experiment more. The bad thing is I miss out on the gregarious, social way that most musicians work.” WayI CanDoneSocialMissingMusicianGood ThingsExperimentsBad ThingsGregariousWorking Alone Author:Moby
“You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.” IfsWayMusicMusicianSingersStay StrongStay Positive Author:Van Morrison
“When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be the way of less profit, less money. I was sort of giving up the idea of making a lot of money. It was what I loved to do. I would have done it anyway. If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.” IfsWayGivingTryingStillsIdeasDonePlayNightMoneyGiving UpMusicianDecidedProfitBellsLots Of MoneyPettyTacosTaco Bell Author:Tom Petty
“As for style, there is something about the way musicians dress-they seem to be able to create their own world within their fashion alone.” WorldWaySeemsAbleFashionStyleMusicianDresses Author:Nicole Richie