Ezra Furman Quotes
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I guess I just do being a man different than some.
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I think there's a large worry in queer communities about imitating straight people, when queerness has its own identity and maybe can be a radical force that should be dismantling stuff that locks people into structures.
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I just don't care that much about the band name. I'm not so precious about it. The Harpoons were different people, but The Boy-Friends were and are the same people as The Visions. I changed it to The Visions when we made 'Transangelic Exodus' because I guess we didn't feel so friendly and boyish anymore.
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Just being gender non-conforming opens you to trouble from strangers. And violence.
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I'm just grateful to people who are willing to admit how bad things feel for them.
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I've been writing songs since I was a teenager, so one kind of song I've written a lot is about, I don't know, teen angst feelings - feeling unsure of yourself and immature.
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My two most fervent interests are pop music and traditional Judaism. Hell of a pair of fervent interests.
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I was thinking very carefully about going into education, becoming a teacher, maybe becoming a rabbi.
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Sometimes there's a day where I don't feel good being out in the world, and I feel unsafe in the world in general. And an anxiety about just showing up in the world. It's kind of irrational, but people do say things to me out in the street about how I'm dressed.
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I always maintain that artists do not have any responsibility to do anything except cause no harm and do whatever we want to do as artists.
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My bassist Jorgen Jorgensen opened up my life to a lot of great, obscure old soul records.
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We take a lot of inspiration from punk rock and early rock 'n' roll from the '50s and early '60s.
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I don't really worship the album 'Transformer.' It's not the best thing that Lou Reed has done.
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Part of what you hear when somebody says something awful to you is like, 'They're right, I look ridiculous, why am I dressed this way, I should go home and change.' For me that voice is always in my head, right around the corner.
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If I can see the sunrise - and I usually don't - I like to. I'm a big fan of the sun.
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In terms of keeping kosher, I've basically just been vegetarian. I want to be fully vegetarian anyway, though sometimes my mom makes chicken soup and I have to eat it. I just love it.
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My main theme as a songwriter seems to be a feeling of homelessness, of being in motion. The feeling of being somehow unmoored, a radical internal freedom that is very painful and also joyful.
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I believe an authentic Judaism would legislate total equality for queer people.
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I'm an amateur at music and an amateur at most things. I like the idea of offering some music and some records and a website to people who feel perplexed.
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My favourite artists are the ones who are human, and you know they're not in a failure-proof environment.
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More visibility is more power, but more vulnerability.
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The Velvet Underground is probably the best band that's ever existed, assuredly the best American one.
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I get stage fright really bad sometimes, so touring has been hard on me in a lot of ways. But despite that, I love performing.
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Far from being a showbiz gimmick, for me dressing as I please has signalled the end of a lifelong performance of straightforward masculinity.