Stephen Malkmus Quotes
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I feel the most natural thing is for music to come that way because it's sort of like poetry. Though I do think with poets that I like, like Charles Olson or Ezra Pound, they were rewriting constantly, until the poem becomes a diamond.But with music I don't really feel that way.
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I'm more into describing a scenario and I move around in that scenario.
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There's no reason to stop. Who knows what's around the bend? To participate, meet new people. It's mostly other musicians and people like you, or anybody I meet who's in this, that keeps me going.
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Don't go to the same studio twice, or work with the same engineer twice.
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The narrative songs were well-written, like an article in The New Yorker. They're nice and pat. They're more like I'm just showing I can do that when I write a song like that. It's not my true calling.
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What I love about music, when you can look at something and be like, "Wow, what's this all about?" You can't really picture what these people look like - is it one guy, or a band making music in a garage?
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Lyrics are back, maybe. It seems like there was a bit of an attitude that lyrics are not important.
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I like that band Get Hustle. They're cool live. I haven't heard their records, though.
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Most people want to be seen or heard. You want to shine. That's my way of shining.
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I've wanted to not play as much. I would like to just sing now. Even though I don't think I'm a great singer, I wouldn't mind just - not being a frontman, per se, but singing and not playing.
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I don't know if you look back on your life and just see successes, but probably the first things that pop up are the regrets.
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I still hate the Eagles…. There’s levels of evil in it to me.
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When a band means a lot to you, you build the fantasy more than the reality. Always.
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You know, the songs that are self-conscious or jerky, they are that way, but the other ones aren't, so that's a good thing. Some of the songs are Beck-jokey, but the others, they have heart in them.
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Things tends to often consolidate like Disney. It's the same with music. There's Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young and Patti Smith. There's these three people that everyone seems to agree on. No matter what they like, they seem to like those three.
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Family is the best. I can honestly say, it's a gift that is beyond making art. I didn't know that when I got into it.
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But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.
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We care if people like what we did. If you're just making records for yourself, why put them out and do all these interviews and do touring? I'm a huge music fan, and this is what I do with my artistic time. It's all I really do, except hang out with my family. I value human relationships, and it's a way for me to interact with the world and feel like I'm part of something.
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I'm not sure if you can blame everything on the American way of life, but the United States are big. So, if you have a lot of people there, the percentage of stupid people is bound to be higher.
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You know, it's people's lives, so as you get a little older, your own life narrative, I guess, invades a little more. It's not like we're traveling in separate buses to each show. It's a labor of love, so we just do it because we like it. Maybe someone's gonna move, or not want to go on a tour for some reason - that could happen, I guess.
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We're probably a couple of freaks who've created their own little universe, are living in our own little world and that's the only place where we can survive.
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Basically, no one else gives me any opinions on lyrics. I don't ask for them. If they did, I would listen.
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It's normally in the morning, just playing around. And I'm not saying everything I make is great, but that's what I do. I can't even remember how I wrote stuff.
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The best I do, if I'm just playing around and riffing in a fantasy world, and then I'll write something down. Hopefully I write it down.