Quote collection
57 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"For years, I was stuck behind a keyboard rig. When I started playing guitar onstage, it was a bit of a release - not to be stuck in one spot the whole night. It's really enjoyable having the freedom to move around. You just have to remember to end up somewhere near a microphone."
"When you first sit down to write the first song, until you've maybe got three or four under your belt, it's always, to me, like a mountain to climb. You look at that one blank piece of paper and you think, `God, how many songs do I have to write here?' It always feels like pressure."
"If you go into the eastern bloc countries we are huge, and in Russia. Maybe there is something about the depressing nature of our music and lyrics that some people find an affinity with."
"Our music over the years has been very cinematic. It's surprising we never really got into film soundtracks."
"England never felt claustrophobic for me at all. I think it would feel more difficult for me if I lived in mainland Europe. America I think is really easy because Los Angeles has film stars everywhere and musicians and Santa Barbara a lot of people have homes there even if they don't live there. You are kind of inconsequential, no one cares."
"I live in Santa Barbara. My wife's American, and she lived in England for 11 years and then told me she'd had enough."
"I studied German at school. I lived in Berlin for two years and had a German girlfriend for five years, so I don't find speaking German particularly difficult. Singing was slightly more difficult."
"I don't write poems and put them to music. Just let things flow."
"I like their darkness but I also like the pop-side of the Velvet Underground."
"I loathe the idea of going onstage in a T-shirt and jeans."
"When I write a song, I always start on acoustic guitar, because that's a good test of a song, when it's really open and bare. You can often mislead yourself if you start with computers and samples and programming because you can disguise a bad song."
"I wasn't ever a massive David Essex fan, but I liked a few of his tracks, and Stardust was one of them."
"More than accepted, it's encouraged for rock stars to be out of control."
"If you took music out of my life, I don't know what I'd do. It's the one thing that I have a real passion for."
"You make one solo album, and some people swear you're about to leave the band or there are creative differences."
"Songwriting is a mysterious art. When I sit down to write a song, the end result should be mysterious and have this dark quality."
"The only things we have to worry about are really stupid things."
"I didn't write songs for a very long time."
"I don't think I ever worry too much about what our target audience is, what we should be releasing. I just write naturally and organically and try to write from the heart."
"All of my kids are into music. My older daughter plays guitar, piano, sings. My young son, he sings."