Ezra Furman Quotes
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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 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 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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We spent a lot of time making 'Transangelic Exodus' and toward the end of it, my ability and my love for music - that is, just garage music, direct and immediate - started to feel neglected.
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You know, a lot of people have an instinct to downplay the fact that they are performing and be, like, 'There is no theatre here. This is just me playing the songs.' At some point I just realised how much better it could be if you weren't shy about being a performer.
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I think most of the work of songwriting is thinking of great phrases - I'm addicted, always on the hunt for a really great phrase.
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More visibility is more power, but more vulnerability.
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Ezra Furman And The Boy-Friends was a band with a specific mission - to be a really good rock'n'roll band. And we achieved it.
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I am frustrated at misconceptions of me, and being cast in a role.
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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 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'm trying to be an activist, and I think of that as separate from my work as an artist. But it isn't.
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Once you admit how bad it feels to live in a broken society, you can start to resist it, and imagine a better one.
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I love it when people write rapturously about music they love.
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Judaism is a way of thinking, more than anything else, that I think is entirely distinct, and the more you know of it, the more you can enter into that kind of thinking.
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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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If you're trying to deal with being a marginalized person and trying to confront a larger population that isn't the same as you, you can be friendly about it, and invite everybody in, or you can be angry about it and be hostile and attack the systems that you want to destabilize.
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Desperate times make for desperate songs.
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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 I'm gradually becoming a more politically aware person.
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A lot of bands break through with their third record: the White Stripes, the Clash, the Replacements.
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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 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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People get stigmatised for their bodies and for their differences. Then those people become very vulnerable.