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A lot of food criticism has a similar flavor to it, and I'm probably going to write about it in a different way.
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I think in the world of indie music there's this sort of false modesty.
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A lot of bands have the enthusiasm kicked out of them by playing really dreary pub venues that just churn bands through.
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Why play a chord when you can play one note?
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The Beatles were huge for me, ... I used to jump around the room to the red album, the one with all the early hits on it. It made you feel euphoric. It was a sensation I couldn't get from anything else, whether it was playing football, swimming or even seeing 'Star Wars.'
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For me upward social mobility is possible through talent and hard work and is a glowing endorsement of the benefits of living in a modern capitalist society. It's not so much evidence of a meritocracy, as evidence of healthy nepotism. Nepotism is at the core of a good group dynamic. A good group dynamic is at the core of rock'n'roll.
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It's very rare that a song falls from your mind complete.
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There are loads of bands I'd love to produce.
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There's a difference between expectations and aspirations.
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Ambition is sneered at by some bands. It seems like a pretty good thing to me.
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People's musical tastes are fickle, and music can be a fashion.
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Cinema, which is influenced by every single part of life, is direct and reaches you immediately. And writing - the best writing is complex ideas communicated concisely. And music - if it's a good tune, make sure people can bloody hear it.
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You can always have it better. If you try... This is the right attitude. Never to feel completely satisfied, always to want to do something better!
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You can't write for the cultural environment - if you do that, by the time it comes out, that cultural environment has passed. You have to be aiming for something that's original - that's the only way you can have any kind of impact.
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Glasgow's not a media center. When you're there, when you're hanging about, you feel quite detached from musical movements or fashions or anything like that. You do feel quite alone, in a good way.
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Being in a band didn't buy me my beans on toast!
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I really want it to have an impact on the world. I want to be in a town on the other side of the world, and somebody walks up and says, 'That music you made in Glasgow, I listened to it every day, and it moved me.'
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Boho to me is a first-year student who's just discovered the tie-dye shop.
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Just because you can leap off a drum kit doing a scissors kick while hitting a chord, people expect you to be an extrovert socially. But I'm not always comfortable with the idea of small talk at a party.
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If I was a fan of someone as a teenager, then it's OK for me to feel completely in awe when I meet them.
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Arty. To me the word's got as much venom associated with it as 'wacky'.
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Of course, there's a certain type of person who feels that anything which becomes mainstream has to be rejected immediately. And that's part of the indie-alternative snobbery and hierarchy and elitism.
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The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially.
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Anyone can play an instrument if you show them how to move their limbs, lips or fingers the right way. It's irrelevant. What is relevant is personality, energy, creativity and disturbing sense of humour.