Ezra Furman Quotes
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I guess I just do being a man different than some.
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I was a suburban kid who fancied myself somehow intellectual. I was into punk rock but I couldn't get into the subcultural signifiers of dyed hair, safety pins and torn denim. Being a punk seemed like a new set of rules that I wasn't interested in having to follow.
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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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I was thinking very carefully about going into education, becoming a teacher, maybe becoming a rabbi.
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I honestly feel like I've been mostly toiling in obscurity until a little bit after 'Day Of the Dog' came out.
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I like going to bed early and getting up early, but that doesn't happen on tour.
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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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Far from being a showbiz gimmick, for me dressing as I please has signalled the end of a lifelong performance of straightforward masculinity.
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I don't think I'll ever be able to fully explain the way that the Velvet Underground's records opened a door in my head. But it has something to do with Lou Reed as a mythic figure: a person who fitted no category, who defied limits and trends and definitions.
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Learning that someone is gay, queer, trans, doesn't tell you much by itself. They could be any kind of person aside from that particular slice of identity.
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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 want to make the greatest record ever made. It's the only thing I can think about.
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I could write a joke song really easily, but I think something that might be true for my generation is that there's a certain irony or detachedness expected of us, even though we really feel sincere. So the only way to sincerity is through a joke.
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I'm in this effort to unify my life and to live day to day in a disciplined way, to be real at all times, not just in front of people, or not just in a synagogue.
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I don't like the notion that artists have a responsibility to be political.
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I wrote 'My Teeth Hurt' in April 2018 when my teeth hurt and I didn't have dental insurance.
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I first got into music when I heard punk, and it was saying maybe it's OK if you don't live up to the expectations various authorities have for you.
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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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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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I want to be a force that tries to revive the human spirit rather than crush it, to open possibilities rather than close them down. Sometimes a passionate negativity is the best way to do that.
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There is something embarrassing about asking for money, but if I hadn't done that, I would have not continued to be a professional musician.
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I think of myself as someone who's trying to be a great songwriter and a great performer. And I mean really great.
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You have to make a character of yourself if you're going to be known to strangers.
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More visibility is more power, but more vulnerability.