Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music, and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no, like, 'I'll be the roc...
I do believe that music has an intense power to connect us together, to inspire us to become ourselves.
I seriously hate pop music and all things super-commercial.
I see a lot of connections between folk and punk music just because they're both subcorporate music - I mean, traditionally.
Music has as many roles as people make it.
Fashion is silly. Perhaps I should say fashion in general is silly. But then everything is, in general. If you talk about music in general, it's silly; about magazines, in general, they're silly.
I always think it's important to choose your initial theme very carefully because you're going to be married to it for a long time. You might have to generate an hour's worth of music from a very short, little piece of theme.
Two or three notes of music can instantly make you feel sad or tense or afraid or angry. To do that in words is much more difficult.
Only one music comes out of me.
I use music as therapy. Whenever I'm feeling angry or needing some 'me' time, which is quite regularly, I'll go and bang a piano or flesh out something on a guitar.
You never really know as an actor; it's completely out of your control, in terms of editing, and music, and film stock, shot selection, and what takes they use.
Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.
Soul lyrics, soul music came at about the same time as the civil rights movement, and it's very possible that one influenced the other.
I'd be happy if people said that I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.
I don't think that you can write music if you don't know how to play an instrument. You have to know the basics, then you can go forward.
I've always been around musicians and always been the songwriter who doesn't end up playing the music.
I try to give the music more of a campfire feel as opposed to a library atmosphere. I like when you can hear people hanging out in the songs and doing a little shuffling. It creates a feeling of participation.
Popular music usually has a chorus that needs to repeat, and people need to remember the song. That's sort of the major guideline when you're writing a song.
My mother was an opera singer and my grandmother a concert pianist, and they only liked classical music. If I put on a pop record, they would tell me to turn it off, so I only listen to classical.
I don't trawl record shops anymore. I usually hear music in bars or at friends' houses.
I've never got on with the British press because they've always given me such a hard time. Once they build a band up they just want to do people down. They shouldn't concentrate on the colour of someone's shirt they should listen to the music.
