Johnny Marr Quotes
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I think it's a shame when pop culture forgets that theatricality is a big part of it. When Neil Young is fumbling around in his pocket looking for the right harmonica, it doesn't matter that he's a dude in the hat who is a man of the people - there's a theatricality there. You don't have to be David Bowie or the Kabuki theater to have that theatricality going on.
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When I crashed my BMW and managed to walk away pretty much unscathed, it was a turning point. I'd been living the life, and when people see photos of the car wreck, they can't believe I got away with it. It was like a fog had lifted. I stopped drinking a bottle of Tequila before grabbing my car keys. It was time to wise-up and get a haircut.
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Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?JM: Never get into a situation you can’t get out of. I really have stuck to it, because it’s good advice for all walks of live.
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That enforced time when you have to switch off, that you're on a plane, is so unusual these days. It's just that thing of not being able to interact with other people through e-mails or social media or whatever. It's crazy how you even notice that you're not able to do that. I find that the kind of traveling - long days, particularly if you go somewhere to do a show, and then traveling again the next day - a lot of people would find pretty challenging, but I find it energizing in a weird way.
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Quién te conoce
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Joining Modest Mouse was just consistent with what I used to do as a teenager: I followed where I thought I would make some interesting music.
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I'm not interested in trying to have people who might like other kinds of music follow me. I don't want to please them.
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I am very proud of the fact that 20 years on people tell me they became a vegetarian as a result of 'Meat is Murder'. “I think that is quite literally rock music changing someone's life - it's certainly changing the life of animals. It is one of the things I am most proud of.
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I've also been with the same girl, Angie, since I was 15.
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Occasionally, a great band would come along, like Blondie or OutKast who could be pop and bring interesting ideas into the mainstream at the same time. That's now gone, because of this weird mutation of pop, rap, R&B, bad rave, and supposedly soulful singing on top of it.
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Don't get me wrong, I think "Portlandia" is really funny, and quite brilliant, but I like to be in a city where I can hang out in Powell's Bookstore most nights and go out with my friends in a liberal, relaxed atmosphere. I wish more cities were like that.
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Growing up in public is a test, and not many people know how to do it.
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The biggest musical influence on me was my mum. We were both enraptured by music.
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I explored rock culture and what the guitar can do though people like Jimmy Page and John McLaughlin, and the music moves away from pop.
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I had a feeling about what I wanted to say, and I wasn't really qualified to discuss real things out of America because I didn't grow up there.
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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.
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When you're young, you obviously have people you look up to. People like Andrew Oldham and Nile Rodgers inspired me then, and they inspire me now. But at some point, you start to try to be the best you can be and you're not copying anybody else. I'm just doing it in public, and my work needs to reflect that as well.
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I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs.
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Coming from a working-class background, where my father did manual labor, was a good grounding; I was obsessed with getting a job or getting out of the house at 15.
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Having your own space is getting rarer and rarer these days. It's dangerous giving someone like me - who grew up fantasizing about studios and records - the freedom and resources to build your own studio. I would just live in it, which is what I pretty much did for all of the '90s.
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I think one of the things about being around for a while and getting to know yourself is that when you do have these positive experiences, you don't take them for granted - you identify them and you make the most of them. I don't know - it's kind of cool getting old in a lot of ways.
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If people can finally recognize you on radio without being told who it is, thats what you aim for.
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When Morrissey and I started The Smiths, we thought pop music was the most important thing in the world. It was almost a spiritual thing for us, and because of that, we knew what it meant to be a fan.
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I don't really care what music's made on - I love guitars, but I'm fine with great electronic music.