Music is a social act.
There's a higher place that I have no illusions about reaching. There's a sophistication and aesthetic about composers who only write only for the music's sake.
Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.
I've always liked New York, as I like towns with an edge and New York has a European feel, so when I came to play music here in the '80s it was a surprise to me.
I've not been an admirer of contemporary music since punk rock went off the boil in 1977, but once a year I'll listen to 'Spiral Scratch' by the Buzzcocks, or 'Hippy Hippy Shake' by the Swinging Blue Jeans. Otherwise, I can put up with Chopin or shak...
In a weird kind of way, music has afforded me an idealism and perfectionism that I could never attain as me.
When you actually like each other, it translates to the music.
You have to be willing to deal with the ups and downs of the music, the ups and downs of the audience.
The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.
I just don't want to live in the past. I'm really disappointed by so many people of my generation who - in order to promote their new work, they have to constantly lean on their past. I don't want to be that type of artist... I see a lot of people ou...
People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.
To be able to put your arms around 24 years of music, it's really fun.
I think popular music in this country is one of the few things in the twentieth century that have made giant strides in reverse.
I think you can feel the pain I've experienced in my music. It's something that a lot of people can relate to.
Yeah, because what it all boils down to is at the end of the day, we are all riding on the same boat and we have to learn how to deal with each other. I think that the music and what we do in our actions is what can kind of bring us together, hopeful...
I tend to support and get behind issues instead of candidates, because of the whole 'Super Bowl' generalization of our world - You're on this side, I'm on that side; you're a Republican, I'm a Democrat; you're country music, I'm rock music.
My songwriting is so influenced by orchestrated music, dramatic, super glam rock-y stuff. Two of my biggest influences in songwriting were Elton John and Freddie Mercury.
When I turned 30, I started to feel all those miles. At times, you want to turn the faucet off a bit, but I never want to stop traveling. That's what it's all about - taking the music to the people.
I feel that it's the music, not anything else, that matters.
I think the next big thing in music, and it's kind of because I come from the tech industry, is actually, I think it's the platform... Spotify is incredibly interesting. I think the platform is becoming the star.
I'd always loved poetry and I'd always loved writing music and composing music, but I hadn't thought of putting the two together until around that time.
