One of our favorite things to do is interview artists who inspire us. Here’s a selection of quotes uttered during interviews this past year that capture the creative spirit and will invigorate yours.
“We don’t usually think about live shows at all when we’re writing. But I feel like, ever since I was a little kid, I used to put on songs and perform them for myself because I thought it was fun. I believe you’re capable of performing to anything. It doesn’t have to be something specific. So we just write what we want and then we work with it on stage. And I like the challenge, too, of performing a song for the first time.” — Izzy, HUNTERS (read the full interview here.)
“So you’re just kind of out with your message and your little parade by yourself, which is so fucked up. It really sucks because this is every teen girl’s dream, and we could get into their minds to actually teach them something about entrepreneurship, running your own business, being a single mom, following your dreams, building a fucking pretty successful company…but no, that’s not important. So where do you go then? When you’re not like Katy Perry and you’re not their kind of “feminists,” where do you go to find somebody who wants to help you get your message across?” — Leyla, HEARTSREVOLUTION (read the full interview here.)
“It’s funny, we kind of set out to make this record and had a couple of different ideas of approaching. One of them was to try and build a broader fan base, because I feel like so much of Talk About Body was exclusive to a queer community or something. And not that we wanted to leave that behind, but we wanted to open ourselves up to be able to talk about things in a little bit less of a literal way or something. Somehow it just made me start writing about personal struggle, and I think maybe that’s normal for people.” — JD Samson, MEN (read the full interview here.)
“I mean, I think we all have differing perspectives on this. I’m not against working with any company ever, although I don’t necessarily see it as something that benefits me as [much as] a company trying to market a lifestyle, which is really silly. Certainly it’s something that’s ethically dicey. I don’t think any of us would want to participate. We were trying to think of companies we would ever want to work with, just because we’ve been talking about this stuff lately. We were having a hard time coming up with any.” — Sadie, Speedy Ortiz (read the full interview here.)
“I’m fascinated by how easily the general public is manipulated by advertising, the “news,” and governmental agencies. There are so many subversive ways we are inculcated to buy, consume, or absorb brands, ideas, and policies. I see most forms of these communications as visual manipulation that ultimately affects us on a subconscious level. I’m interested in the messages that are sent in this way, and am curious if I can use the same effects but to create a positive shift. By creating images that people may not “get” at first glance but absorb subconsciously, I feel the concepts embed themselves in the psyche and perhaps can contribute in a way to a subconscious awakening that I feel our society so desperately needs.” — Gilf! (read the full interview here.)
“The Internet is great. It makes everything everywhere more connected. I’m not exactly sure if it saved my life, but I’m sure it has done that for lots of people that have used match.com or eharmony.com. It is pathetic in the most awesome way if you ask me. You can be anything on the internet and get recognition for it, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect your immediate reality. Which is great because reality sucks.” – Gordon Holden (read the full interview here.)
“It’s not really “sex sells, woohoo!” I’m not really that kind of person, but our generation is so visual. I don’t mind it. I’m not shy. If you want to see skin, I’ll do it if it keeps them moving through the pictures and clicking. But then in my music as well, I’m just a really sexual person. I think sex is really great; the human figure – especially female – is a powerful tool. A lot of my relationships are based upon sex, and I don’t mind writing about it.” — Marial Maher, Seasick Mama (read the full interview here.)
“There are many collaborations that are offered to artists, and my job is to look at the ones that can change the world, meaning charitable causes, and ones that aesthetically work together to make a dope piece.” — Gregory Siff (read the full interview here.)
“The academic music scene is a very difficult one to keep what you thought you were getting into music for pure and innocent. It becomes about structure — which is difficult for a lot of people to swallow. I liked the school but I came out of there not wanting to play jazz because it was just beaten into my skull so much that I just wanted to do something different.” Kiyoshi, Rocket & The Ghost (read the full article here.)
“It’s a really cool city, but it’s hard to live there. You get contained a lot. You spend a lot of time closed in and then something will happen, like fall in New York and you’ll think, “Wow, this is really beautiful.” You have to figure out how to survive there. I remember looking at the amount of money I made about two years ago and it wasn’t enough to cover my rent every month. How did I do that? I don’t know. You just figure it out, I guess.” — Luke Rathborne (read the full interview here.)
“I do find a great deal of hope in young Latino first generation and immigrating professionals working in various aspects of music from journalism, radio, management, and not to mention artists! I’m inspired by the amazing people I get to work with like Analuz Vizarretea at Ba Da Bing Records, originally from Mexico and now here thriving with alot of passion for what she does. People like Analuz, the quality of the work being done makes me so hopeful for what this Latino community can grow to be here in the US. It’s a work in progress, and I think all good things take time.” — Xenia Rubinos (read the full interview here.)
“Well, the story of Hassan Sabbah and the Assassins is really incredible. This dude was the grandmaster to a gang of warriors called The Assassins, who were a group of rowdy merciless killer dudes in ancient Persia. Before Hassan Sabbah would take his warriors on quests, he would drug them with hashish, put them in a deep sleep and drag them into a beautiful garden with hot naked chicks. When they awoke they had no idea they were drugged, but they would be totally hallucinating and thinking they were in paradise. Then that would give them a surge of, like, “Now you have seen paradise, now you can go and kill all of these people.” Totally crazy! And that’s also where the word assassin is derived from, in Arabic, from this guy. It’s all really cool stuff.” — Rahill, Habibi (read the full interview here.)
“He was crying and stuff. The thing is, there’s a lot of training involved in that. You’re not supposed to say certain things. You can’t even say, “You have a lot to live for,” or “I’m sure there are people who would miss you.” You can’t say any of that. The only thing you can say is, “I really hope you don’t do that.” Once the person starts saying, “If you hang up the phone I’m going to kill myself right now!” You’re not allowed to call an ambulance — none of that — because it’s anonymous. So I had to pass it off to a supervisor because it got really intense.” — Inna, Butter the Children (read the full interview here.)
“Well it was actually my ex-boyfriend from 2007 that gave me Bed, the short story book of his. And I read on an airplane cover to cover like “Ohmygod this person has thoughts like I do!” And I looked at the book and like, “Huh he has a blog” and so that’s really kind of what started getting [me] into writing on the internet mostly seriously. I kind of started a blog–I wondered if I’ll ever talk to Tao. And he found my blog.” — Megan Boyle (read the full interview here.)
“I mean really if you were a musician any time before punk you were kind of an original punk. ‘Cause most musicians were playing music to escape some sort of oppression with reality. Physical oppression — whatever it was –they were all doing it to elevate somehow, and I think that in its nature is punk.” — Zach, The So So Glos (read the interview here.)
