Background Image

...

It's The Age Old Thing: If You Want To Get Elected, Blame Immigrants. It Worked In The 20th Century And It Works Now, And It's Heart-breaking To See People Make The Same Mistakes. They're Looking At A Complicated World, But They Just Keep Blaming Immigrants, And It's Really Disturbing That People Haven't Got Past That.

-Moby

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

It's The Age Old

Moby

...

It's The Age Old Thing: If You Want To Get Elected, Blame Immigrants. It Worked In The 20th Century And It Works Now, And It's Heart-breaking To See People Make The Same Mistakes. They're Looking At A Complicated World, But They Just Keep Blaming Immigrants, And It's Really Disturbing That People Haven't Got Past That.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Moby

Actually, The Most Entitled People I've Met Are Indie Rockers And Indie Actors, Because They Really Believe Their Press.

I Love Nyc. It's The City Of My Birth And Probably The Most Amazing City On The Planet.

In 1991 I Did An Interview Wherein I Described Myself As A 'teetotal Christian,' Which Was An Exaggeration, Although I Do Like Tea And Christ.

Because We Find Somethings Distasteful Is Not Justification Enough For Us To Deem Them Criminal.

I Would Drink And Drink And Then At 3 O'clock In The Morning Take Anything That Was Put In Front Of Me. And I'd Sometimes Be Disappointed When Conventional Things Were Put In Front Of Me. Like, I'd Do A Line Of Something And Be Disappointed To Find It Was Just Cocaine.

When You Look At The Consequences Of Climate Change, At Rainforest Deforestation, At Antibiotic Resistance, These Are Not Necessarily Political Issues, But Rather Issues That Have The Ability To Threaten Our Species.

When I Tour I'm Going To Countries To Play Music For People. My Presence In A Country Is Not An Endorsement Or A Condemnation Of That Country's Policies. My Presence In A Country Is An Effort To Connect With People Through Playing Music.

I Found It Incredibly Disheartening That In The Late '90s, Suddenly Pop Culture Became Even More Misogynistic And More Homophobic, And So I Criticized Eminem For Having Lyrics That Were Egregiously Homophobic And Egregiously Misogynistic.

Look Not Too Long In The Face Of The Fire, O Man! Never Dream With Thy Hand On The Helm! Turn Not Thy Back To The Compass; Accept The First Hint Of The Hitching Tiller; Believe Not The Artificial Fire, When Its Redness Makes All Things Look Ghastly. To-morrow, In The Natural Sun, The Skies Will Be Bright; Those Who Glared Like Devils In The Forking Flames, The Morn Will Show In Far Other, At Least Gentler, Relief; The Glorious, Golden, Glad Sun, The Only True Lamp—all Others But Liars!

All Human Belief Systems Are Inherently Flawed.

If I Was A Sex Symbol, I Would Be Getting Laid A Lot More Than I Am Now.

I Had An Epiphany A Few Years Ago Where I Was Out At A Celebrity Party And It Suddenly Dawned On Me That I Had Yet To Meet A Celebrity Who Is As Smart And Interesting As Any Of My Friends.

I Realized The Universe Is 15 Billion Years Old And Unspeakably Complicated. I Still Love The Teachings Of Christ, But I Also Believe That The Human Condition Prevents Us From Having Any True Objective Knowledge And Understanding Of The Universe.

I'm Not Catholic But The Virgin Mary Fascinates Me Because She's Like A Folk Hero.

Mainly I'm A Vegan Because I Like Animals, And I Don't Want To Be Involved In Their Suffering. Also, It's Better For My Health And For The Environment.

There Are A Lot Of People In The Animal Rights Movement Who Can Be Very Passionate And Aggressive, And I Applaud People's Passion, But When People Are Judgmental And Aggressive, All You End Up Doing Is Getting Other People To Turn Away In Irritation. To Change People's Minds, You Have To Respect The People You're Talking To.

The Aggressive, Energised, Political, Or Even Politicised, Culturally Aware Music Hasn't Really Existed [recently].

Lord, I Want To Be Up In My Heart.

Better A Loving Single-parent Family Than A 'conventional' Family Where The Parents Hate Each Other And The Father Is A Demagogue.

All Of Us Little Bald White Guys Wearing Glasses Kind Of Look The Same.

I Made A Record In 1996 Called 'animal Rights' That Was A Very Difficult, Very Dark Punk-rock Record. Of All The Records I've Made, It's My Favorite One. It's Also The One That Got The Worst Reviews And Sold The Worst.

I Taught Bible Study, And There Was Period Where I Thought All Of My Beliefs Were Right, And Everybody Who Disagreed With Me Was Wrong.

Old People Go To The Polls Because They Can't Get Erections, Young People Stay Home, Do Drugs And Have Sex.

The Term 'renaissance Man' Is Always Bandied About. I Don't Think That Applies To Me. You Think About Leonardo Da Vinci, And He Was A Painter And A Physicist And An Architect, And That Is A True Renaissance Man.

As Far As I'm Concerned, The Whole Point Of Making Music Is To Get It Heard By As Many People As Possible.

Britney [spears]'s Actually Kind Of Like A Broken-down Shell Of A Human Being, That's What Makes Her So Endearing And Compelling.

I Feel Compelled To Make Art That On One Hand Reflects And Sometimes Almost Creates Like A Sense Of Comfort When Confronted With The Strangeness Of The World.

I'm A Weird, Bald Musician Who Makes Records In His Bedroom And Lives In The Lower East Side.

Over Time, I Started Becoming More And More Aware Of The Vastness And Complexity Of The Universe, Which Led Me Away From Any Sort Of Conventional Christianity.

I Stopped Drinking And Realised New York Still Has A Lot Of Charm, But It Has Become So Bourgeois And Affluent - And I Can't Really Complain Because I'm Sort Of Bourgeois And Affluent Myself, But I Like Living In A Place Where Artists And Musicians And Writers Can Actually Pay The Rent.

For Years, My Mom Dated A Man Who Was Really Active In The Baptist Church In The Town Next To The Town I Grew Up In, And So He Used To Drag Me To These Baptist Church Services That Lasted Forever. I Remember That I Didn't Like The Church Services, But I Really Liked The Music.

I Have No Patience For Anyone Who Thinks They've Figured Things Out, No Patience For People Who Think They're Right At The Expense Of Everyone Else. The World Is Too Connected And Too Complicated To Conform To Any Of Our Rigid Ideas Of What It Should Be Like.

Basically We Should Stop Doing Those Things That Are Destructive To The Environment, Other Creatures, And Ourselves And Figure Out New Ways Of Existing.

God Took His Chosen People And We Are What's Left. He Looked At What's Left And Thought: I Could Kill You All, But Let's See What Happens. A Little Social Experiment.

At 3 O'clock In The Morning On Tour When You're Sober Is A Lot Less Fun Than 3 A.m. When You're Drunk In A Bar Or In A Nightclub. But Having Said That, 9 In The Morning On Tour Sober Is Immeasurably Better Than 9 A.m. On Tour When You're Hung Over And Feeling Like Death.

Because I've Been That Drunk Person In The Club So Many Thousands Of Times, When I'm In An Environment Where People Are Drunk Or On Drugs, I Certainly Don't Judge Them. Because It's Almost A Given That For Much Of My Life I've Been Way More Messed Up Than Them.

As An American, No One Expected Donald Trump To Ever Be A Serious Candidate For President. I Don't Think He Even Expected To Be A Serious Candidate. He Wanted The Free Media He Would Get.

I’ve Never Seen The Need To Choose One Type Of Music At The Exclusion Of Another. That Would Feel Kind Of Sad And Arbitrary.

My Reason For Becoming A Vegetarian Was Simple: I Loved (and Love) Animals

Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris.

I Think That Eminem Is Very Talented And Remarkably Bright, And I Actually Do Like A Lot Of His Music.

I Need An Audience Way More Than An Audience Needs Me.

For Example, You Can Go On All The Pro-life Chat Rooms And Say You're An Outraged Right-wing Voter And That You Know That George Bush Drove An Ex-girlfriend To An Abortion Clinic And Paid For Her To Get An Abortion.then You Go To An Anti-immigration Website Chat Room And Ask, "what's All This About George Bush Proposing Amnesty For Illegal Aliens?"

Oftentimes Things That Seem Really Difficult And Traumatic In The Short Term Seem A Lot Less Difficult And Traumatic In The Long Term.

One Simple Word: Ugh. Is Something Still Considered A Conspiracy If It's Played Out Right Under Our Noses?

I'm Actually Cautiously Optimistic That Donald Trump Will Be So Bad That He Will Force America To Wake Up And Realise That Forcing America To Vote For Right Wing Republicans Is Always A Terrible Idea. It's Never Been A Good Idea, But What Happened Here Is You Have A President Like Obama Who Gives You Eight Years Of Relative Stability And Prosperity, And People Forget That Republicans Are Just Terrible, Not Just For The Country But For The Planet. Maybe This Is America's Equivalent Of Bottoming Out, Like A Crystal Meth Addict Going On One Last Big Run Before They Have To Get Sober.

Unfortunately I'm Still Straight. But Who Knows, Life Is Complicated And Maybe I'll Wake Up Gay Tomorrow! Here's Hoping. And Congratulations To Everyone Who Lives In A Place Where They Can Marry The Person They Love, Regardless Of Gender!

Congratulations

I Feel Like Sometimes We Have To Be A Little Less Inclusive And Tolerant If Other People's Opinions Could Lead To The Destruction Of Our Species.

I Run Into A Lot Of People Who Are Instantly Filled With Ridicule At The Idea That Someone Wouldn't Eat Meat.

In The Long, Nonillustrious History Of White People Pilfering African American Culture, Have I Just Perpetrated That? I'm Motivated By A Love For The Music And By A Love Of The Performances, And I Really Hope I Haven't Done Anything Bad.

In An Odd Way, Donald Trump And Maybe Brexit Is Gonna Be Great For Inspiring A New Wave Of Socially Conscious Political Music.

I Always Just Made Music That Resonates With Me Emotionally.

Musically, New York Is A Big Influence On Me. Walk Down The Street For Five Minutes And You'll Hear Homeless Punk Rockers, People Playing Caribbean Music And Reggae, Sacred Islamic Music And Latino Music, So Many Different Types Of Music.

Since I Was Really Little, I've Just Always Had An Obsession With, Not Just Science Fiction, But Science And Space. And Also Because As Time Passes And The More Advanced Science Becomes, The More Interesting It Becomes.

All I Want To Do With My Life Is Try And Make Music That I Really Love, And So Every Day I Try And Work On Music.

The Good Thing About Working Alone Is I Get A Lot Done And I Can Experiment More. The Bad Thing Is I Miss Out On The Gregarious, Social Way That Most Musicians Work.

In 1992 I Was Doing One Of My First Ever Tours And I Was In Heathrow Airport And I Saw These Middle-aged Musicians Who Had Clearly Been On Tour For Decades, And They All Looked Haggard And Unhappy And Unhealthy. I Vowed To Myself That I Would Never Be That Person. Flash Forward 20 Years And I Found Myself In Heathrow Looking Haggard And Unhappy And Unhealthy. I Decided I Would Rather Spend My Time Staying Home Working On Music And Making Dinner With Friends, Instead Of Spending Six Months In A Hotel In A State Of Depressing Suspended Adolescence.

I'm Pretty Much A Realist. There's A Certain Age You Get To When You're Not Really Going To Be Shown Anymore.

That Is Not All I Need. I Need Dogs. A House Filled With Dogs And A Smart, Funny, Kind, Loving Girlfriend Or Wife.

I've Been Making Music For Thirty-six Years And, You Know, I'm Still Just As In Love With Working On Music Now As I Was Thirty-six Years Ago.

To Quote Homer Simpson, Alcohol Is The Cause And Solution To All Of Life's Problems. I Don't Think There's Anything Wrong With Drinking And Drug Use, If People Can Do It And Not Hurt Themselves. But It Got To The Point Where I Was Really Hurting Myself.

I Love Going On Tour And Playing Music For People.

When 'play' First Came Out, Journalists Didn't Review It; It Didn't Get Radio Play. And Then It Became This Big Successful Record And, I Hate To Admit This, I Found Myself Liking The Fame. I Bought Into It.

I Sort Of Use As My Guiding Principle That Show The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. Whenever Possible, Do The Stupid Thing.

Guiding Principles

I Realized That I Don't Like Touring. I'll Never Complain About It Because No One Wants To Hear About A Relatively Successful Musician Complain About The Hardships Of Staying In A Hotel.

The Solution Probably Doesn't Look Like The Problem. If We Have This Propensity To Worry, To Be Anxious, To Be Depressed, To Be Angry - Focusing On The Worry, Anxiety, Depression, And Anger? Probably Not Gonna Be The Solution.

I've Worked With All Sorts Of Random People - Everybody From Metallica To Britney Spears To Ozzy Osbourne To Michael Jackson To The Beastie Boys. I've Got A Really Strange Cv. It's Interesting - I Work With A Lot Of These Disparate, Different People To Learn What It's Like To Work With Random People.

I've Done The Performing Monkey Stuff And Massive Breakdowns, It's Just They Weren't Documented.

I've Had Insomnia Since I Was A Little Kid And I Never Sleep Well. Sometimes I Sleep Very Badly And Sometimes I Sleep Slightly Badly. I Get It Especially When I'm On Tour Because You Cross A Lot Of Time Zones, And I'm Not Very Adaptable.

When I Was Very Young, I Played In A Punk-rock Band, But I Also Studied Music Theory And Classical Music.

Personally I Find The Democratic Chaos Of The Internet Fascinating, And For The Most Part Really Benign.

I Love It When Celebrities Fall Apart, You Want Them To Fall Apart Like Charlie Sheen.

When Playing Big Festivals, I Tend To Play Big, Over The Top Techno Tracks, Like Hands In The Air Songs That Make Sense Being Played In Front Of 30,000 People. I Steer Away From Subtlety In The Interests Of Big Bombastic Dance Music.

It Will Be Interesting To See What The Long Term Fruits Of Our National Apathy Will Be, 'cos So Far They've Been Pretty Foul.

Intellectually, Human Beings And Animals May Be Different, But It's Pretty Obvious That Animals Have A Rich Emotional Life And That They Feel Joy And Pain. It's Easy To Forget The Connection Between A Hamburger And The Cow It Came From. But I Forced Myself To Acknowledge The Fact That Every Time I Ate A Hamburger, A Cow Had Ceased To Breathe

There Are A Lot Of Public Figures Who, Before They Take A Stand On A Issue, They Talk About It With Their Publicist And They Figure Out How It's Going To Affect Record Sales. Life Is Really Too Short To Worry About That Sort Of Thing.

One Of The Reasons Why Fundamentalists Are So Aggressive In Trying To Promote Fundamentalism Is Because Deep Down They Know It's Arbitrary. If You're Comfortable With Your Belief You Don't Need To Convince Other People To Agree With You.

I Joined Facebook Purely So I Could Play Online Scrabble. You Have Eight Tiles Instead Of Seven, So You Tend To Have Higher Scores. I'm Somewhere Between 400 And 500.

When I Was In My Twenties, I Thought I Was Bulletproof.

This Isn't Like Naming Your Dog Spot.

There Are So Many Causes. Gun Control, Climate Change, Deforestation, Animal Welfare, Human Welfare, Education. Working On The Big Issues Is Noble And Great, But Being Aware Of What’s Going On Around You Right At This Moment, Being Kind To The People Around You, Extending Compassion And Decency, Not Just To Everyone You Meet But Also To Yourself—i Think That’s One Of The Biggest Challenges Most People Face.

I Find London Really Exciting But There's A Lot Of Vicious Success Here. Like New York, There's A Lot Of Incredibly Successful People Who Feel Incredibly Entitled, Perhaps Justifiably, But I Don't Want To Be Around Viciously Entitled People.

I Think A Lot Of Self-importance Is A Product Of Fear. And Fear, Living In Sort Of An Un-self-examined Fear-based Life, Tends To Lead To Narcissism And Self-importance.

My Main Interest Is Just To Work With People Who Have Beautiful, Interesting, Emotive Voices; I'm Not Too Concerned Whether Someone Is Famous.

If There Is True Evil In The World - It Is Republican Conservatives.

My Job Of Being A Musician In A Recording Studio Has Nothing To Do With Being A Musician Being On Tour Performing.

I Love To Be Busy. I'm Envious Of People Who Are Able To Take Their Spare Time And Relax. All I Like To Do Is Work. Perhaps It's Lingering Calvinist Guilt?

We Hope That As A Species We're Capable Of Dealing With Environmental Catastrophe Before It Actually Does Collectively Kill Most Of Us.

Somehow, Magically, I've Become An Electronic Musician, And I Have A Recording Studio That Looks Like The Bridge Of The Enterprise.

I Honestly Just Love Being In My Studio Working On Music. That's All The Inspiration I Need. And I Don't Write With An End Result In Mind, I Just Write For The Simple Love Of Writing.

I've Been Having A Midlife Crisis Since I Was Four Years Old.

The Main Thing That Excites Me And Makes Me Want To Get Out Of Bed Is The Thought Of Being Able To Go Into My Studio To Work On Music.

We Almost Need To Cultivate - I Hate To Sound New Age-y - But To Cultivate A Positive Bias, And Really Work To Focus On Those Things And Notice Those Things That Are Wonderful And Uplifting.

The Worst Case Scenario Is You Really Like Someone's Work, Then You Meet Them And They're A Self-involved, Entitled Douchebag.

Worst Case Scenario

That Softness Around Your Eyes, A Softness In Your Face. Almost The Way You Feel When You’re About To Start Crying. That, To Me, Is Love. It Can Be Romantic Love, It Can Be Friendship Love, It Can Be Family Love, It Can Be Love For A Chipmunk. It Can Be Love For Anything.

It Takes A Unique Woman To See Me As Any Sort Of Catch.

Moby Lives The Simplest Of Any Person I Think I Know.

One Of The Problems With Being Relatively Conscious And Human, Is That You Want To Help Everybody.

The Idea Of Feeling Old Is Much More The Worry Of A Slightly Younger Person. When You Are Getting Old, That Becomes - Psssh - Completely Secondary To The Absolute Understanding Of How Short Your Life Is.

When I Was Growing Up, Albums Were My Closest Friends, As Sad As That May Sound - Joy Division's 'closer,' Or Echo And The Bunnymen's 'heaven Up Here'... I Had A More Intimate Relationship With Those Records Than I Did With Most Of The People In My Life.

Intimate Relationships

I Don't Sleep Very Well When I Travel. And As A Result, I Tend To Be Awake In Cities When Everyone Else Is Asleep.

I Don't Know Many Artists Who Are Happy With Themselves All Of The Time.

Whenever I've Had Success, I Never Learn From It. Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris. When You Fail, That's When You Learn.

I've Dated Some Very Enthusiastic, Attractive People And Some Very Unenthusiastic, Less Attractive People. I See No Correlation. But Female Friends Of Mine Who Have Dated Male Public Figures Have Found That Is The Case. They Say Male Models Are Terrible In Bed, Because They Feel Like Just Showing Up Is All The Effort They Need To Make.

A Lot Of My Friends Who Grew Up In Manhattan Have A Strange Phobia About Brooklyn. It's Big And Scary And They Get Lost.

I Truly Don't Judge Other People's Actions. But I Think That Factory Farming Is An Abomination.

I Think The Word 'blog' Is An Ugly Word. I Just Don't Know Why People Can't Use The Word 'journal.'

I'm Obsessed With Politics, And I Talk About It Any Chance I Can Get. I Have Strong Opinions About How The World Should Be Run.

Dogs Have Boundless Enthusiasm But No Sense Of Shame. I Should Have A Dog As A Life Coach.

It Seems So Antithetical To The Teachings Of Christ To Proclaim Your Faith In Public. I Mean, Of Course You're Not Supposed To Hide Your Light Under A Bushel.

I Don't Think I'm A Particularly Good Writer, And I'm Not Terribly Insightful.

Call Me A Nerd If You Like, But I Do Find It Hard To Leave Home Without My Laptop And A Good Book.

I Honestly Haven't Thought Much About What To Play And Where, Perhaps I Should...it Seems Like Most Musicians Are Better At That Than I Am.

One Of The Goals Of A Spiritual Practice Is Self-awareness, And One Of The Best Tools Of Self-awareness Is Simple Emotional Vulnerability.

The World Is Experiencing Great Change, But You've Got Loads Of People Terrified Of This Change And The Donald Trumps, The Boris Johnsons Making Utterly Simplistic, Reductionist Policy Proposals That Are Unrealistic But Then People Buy It Up.

There's An Aesthetic Theme, Which Is Cities At Two O'clock In The Morning. Not Cities Packed With People Going Out To Clubs And Dancing But Desolate, Empty Streets. It's Off-putting But There's A Strange Comfort To It As Well, That Desolate Urban Environment.

But On A Utilitarian Level, I Realize That To Try To Accomplish The Greatest Good For The Greatest Number Of People, Sometimes We Have To Become Salesmen For What We Believe, And Part Of Being A Salesman Is Being Effective.

A Great Song Is A Great Song, Whether It's On Vinyl Or Cd Or Cassette Or Reel To Reel Or Mp3. Then Again, That Might Be An Overly Optimistic View, But I Do Think That Great Music Will Transcend The Medium In Which It Is Delivered.

I've Made Records That Everyone Has Hated And I've Loved, And Made Records That Everyone Has Loved And I've Deemed, At Best, Mediocre.

I Saw People Around Me Who Were Falling Deeper And Deeper Into Alcoholism And Substance Abuse. It's Seductive Because Alcohol Is Amazing And Drugs Are Amazing, They Work So Well.

There Are So Many Musicians, Friends Of Mine, Who Play Shows For Ten People A Night, Or Always Desperately Wanted A Record Contract. So Even If Every Person On The Planet Loathes Me, I Have Nothing To Complain About. My Job Is Not A Bad Job, So I Can't Complain.

If Someone Writes A Nice Review Of My Record, I Feel Like I Should Take Them Out To Dinner Or Go Over And Clean Their Apartment.

I Have Nothing Against Bombastic Music, But When It Comes To Making Albums, I'd Prefer To Make Music That Has A Sort Of Vulnerable Subtlety To It.

There Is Nothing Terribly Wrong With My Face, Even If Some Of Its Parts Aren't Very Inspiring.

I've Dated Attractive People And I Don't Find A Correlation Between Amorous Enthusiasm And Beauty And Public Figure Status.

If You Look At Someone Like Joe Strummer Or John Lennon, When You Heard Their Music You Knew That They Wrote It And They Cared About It.

I Love The Idea Of Making Records That People Can Use, Records That Have A Sense Of Utility.

To Paraphrase Paul From The New Testament, He Has A Great Soliloquy About Love, Where He's Basically Saying, If I've Figured Out The Secrets Of The Universe But I Don't Have Love, Figuring Out The Secrets Of Universe Means Nothing.

The People Who Get More Fame, Who Get More Money, More Often Than Not They Are Miserable, Insecure And On Anti-depressants. It's Strange That Everyone Keeps Buying Into This Idea That More Success Is Good, That More Fame Is Good, That More Money Is Good. Yet, We Look At The People Who Have More Success, More Fame, More Money And They're Miserable.

I Find The Fact That So Few People Buy Albums To Be Strangely Emancipating. There's Absolutely No Reason For 99% Of Musicians Making Albums To Think About Actually Selling Albums. So As A Musician You Can Just Make An Album For The Love Of Making Albums.

One Time I Was Doing An Interview For A Gay Magazine And Halfway Through The Journalist Found Out I Wasn't Gay. He Said, 'sorry, I Can't Continue The Interview.' Because They Only Had Gay Public Figures In Their Magazine. I Felt So Crestfallen. I Wanted To Tell Him: But I Play Fundraisers For Gay Marriage! I'd Rather My Kids Were Gay Than Straight!'

I Feel Like Once The Song Is Done, You Put It Out There And If People Want To Do Bizarre Remixes, If People Want To Make Strange Videos, Great. You Know, Like Chaos Theory Applied To The Music Business.

It's Enshrined In Our Constitution That An Individual Has A Right To Release Information And Disseminate Information That Makes The Powers That Be Uncomfortable.

I Know, In My Heart Of Hearts, I Don't Do Things For Money.

I'm Not Trying To Look For Pity Or Sympathy. I Was Just Surprised That So Many People In The World Of Entertainment Seemed To Be Okay With Misogyny And Homophobia As Long As They Were Profiting From It.

There Is A Long And Interesting Tradition Of Really Marginal Left-field Music That Becomes Commercially Successful. And I Will, For A Brief Minute, Fit Into That Tradition.

I'm Gonna Have To Start Walking Down The Street And Start Hitting People In The Head!

But At The Same Time, I Don't Let Myself Regret Things To The Point That I'm Paralyzed.

I Think The Ideal Job In That Alternative Universe Would Be To Lead Whitewater Rafting Trips Through The Grand Canyon. So Maybe I'd Be A Guy Leading Whitewater Rafting Trips At The Grand Canyon. Or Maybe A Professional Skydiver.

Nasa Is An Utterly Fascinating Place, And The Fact That The Buildings Look So Anonymous Almost Make It More Fascinating. You Walk By A Generic Office-park-looking Building, And You Have No Idea What's Going On Inside.

There Are Certain Songs That If People Come Up To Me And Tell Me How Much That Song Meant To Them, I Think, You Should Have Better Taste, Then, Because I Don't Really Like That Song.

It's Much Easier To Have A Diversified Career As An Electronic Musician Than It Is As A Drummer. Nothing Against Drummers. If You're A Drummer, You Just Wait Around For People To Ask You To Play Drums. But If You Have Your Own Studio And Can Make Music, You Have The Ability To Approach Music A Lot Differently.

I Have No Perspective As Regards My Work. One Reason I Put Out Records And Books Is People Respond To It, And It Enables You To Actually See The Work More Clearly. It's A Form Of Therapy For Me. Sometimes Abusive Therapy.

Never Have Public Feuds With Anyone Who's Surrounded By People Who Carry Guns.

I Like Noise. It's Always Puzzled Me Why One Of The Goals Of Contemporary Recording Is To Get Rid Of Noise And To Eliminate Any Element Of A Performance.

Factory-farm Lobbyists Are So Powerful And So Well Funded And They Do Everything In Their Power To Hide The Truth About Farming. They Keep The Farms And Slaughterhouses In Places That Most People Never Visit; They Execute Huge Marketing Campaigns In An Effort To Make Animal Production Look Like A Happy, Nice, Benign Institution.

I Guess...on One Hand, I Spent Way Too Much Time Watching Science Fiction And Reading Science Fiction When I Was Growing Up. But A Part Of It Is I Also Never Felt Much Of A Connection To The World In Which I Lived While I Was Growing Up, And So, Oddly Enough, I Think I Felt A Lot More Connected To The Worlds That I Read About In Science Fiction.

Music Is Just Air Moving Around.

I Always Feel Kind Of Absurd And Presumptuous Presenting A Speech.

You Could Spend Every Waking Moment Online And Still Only Experience One-trillionth Of What's Out There. I Find That A Little Overwhelming.

There's Really No Reason For Any Musician, Writer, Actor To Ever Take Themselves Seriously. If You Work In A Needle Exchange, Take Yourself Seriously. You're Doing Good Work. If You're Involved In Hostage Negotiations And Saving Lives, You Can Have A Sense Of Entitlement.

A Lot Of Times Good, Pristine Recordings Prevent The Listener From Getting Emotionally Involved In The Music.

No One Drives In Manhattan - In Fact, Many Of The Folks Who Live In Manhattan Don't Even Have Driving Licenses!

If You And I Become Vegans, The Global Consequences Aren't Going To Be That Much. But If We Can Get A Few Hundred Million People To Become A Little More Aware And Cut Back On Their Animal Consumption, The Consequences Will Be Great.

I'm Envious Of People Who Can Sleep As Long As They Want. I Have The Circadian Rhythm Of A Farmer.

I Used To Have A Lot Of Envy For Those Musicians Who Have Been Universally Loved.

What Makes Me Vulnerable Is Any Genuine Expression Of Emotion In The Presence Of Another Person. It Makes Me Vulnerable And My Inclination Is, Of Course, Immediately To Back Away From Anything That Makes Me Vulnerable.

The Demise Of The Monolithic Record Industry Has Been, For A Lot Of People, Really Liberating And Emancipating.

My Goal With Everything That I Do Is To Present Things In A Way That I Would Want To See If I Was In The Audience Or Buying The Record.

And If We Obey God, We Must Disobey Ourselves, And It Is In This Disobeying Ourselves, Wherein The Hardness Of Obeying God Consists.

I Was On Food Stamps Until I Was 18 And Became An Adult.

By Being Vulnerable, Either With Yourself Or In The Presence Of Another Person, That’s Where All Growth And Ultimate Well-being Comes From.

We Need To Finally Accept That All Sentient Creatures Are Deserving Of Basic Rights. I Define Basic Rights As This -the Ability To Pursue Life Without Having Someone Else's Will Involuntarily Forced Upon You.

I Just Want To Try - On A Daily Basis Keep Trying - To Make Music That I Really Love.

Whether The Virgin Mary Existed, I Don't Know. But The Human Need For Her To Appear In Tortilla, That's What Inspires My Interest.

I Guess The Most Emotional Part Is When I Have That Moment When I End Up Writing Something That I Really, Really Love. So Not Only Is There The Emotional Connection With The Music That's Being Created, But There's Also The Magic Of The Fact That You're Essentially Creating Something From Nothing.

Nothing Can Stop Us Now 'cause We Are All Made Of Stars.

When Public Figures Think They Can Open A Business Even Though They've Got No Business Experience, It's A Bad Idea.

Up Until The Rise Of Electronic Music, If You Were A Musician In Portugal Or Germany Or Italy Or Japan, And You Didn't Sing In English, You Really Were Limited: You Could Be Successful In The Country Where People Understood Your Language. The World Of Electronic Music Is Completely International. You Have Djs From Finland Making Huge Records For People In New Zealand, Djs In South Korea Making Huge Records For People In France. By The Fact That It Doesn't Cost Anything To Make, And That It Transcends Language, Nation It Accidentally Accomplishes A Lot Of Really Remarkable Things.

The Truth Is That Genetics Has Robbed Me Of Hair. But It's Not Interesting To Blame Genetics.

In Some Ways It's Hard To See Electronic Music As A Genre Because The Word "electronic" Just Refers To How It's Made. Hip-hop Is Electronic Music. Most Reggae Is Electronic. Pop Is Electronic. House Music, Techno, All These Sorts Of Ostensibly Disparate Genres Are Sort Of Being Created With The Same Equipment.

What Makes Me Feel Old Is Having No Hair On The Top Of My Head.

Luckily Almost No One Buys Music Anymore, So Selling Music Doesn't Really Affect Any Of My Professional Decisions.

There's No Wrong Way To Meditate. And Meditation Should Never Be A Difficult Practice That Leads To Self Criticism.

The Most Emotional Part Is When I Go Into My Studio Every Day And Pretty Much Never Have An Idea Of What's Gonna Happen.

If You Don't Want To Be Beaten, Imprisoned, Mutilated, Killed Ot Tortured, Then You Shouldn't Condone Such Behaviour Towards Anyone, Be They Human Or Not.

What Fascinates Me About Addiction And Obsessive Behavior Is That People Would Choose An Altered State Of Consciousness That's Toxic And Ostensibly Destroys Most Aspects Of Your Normal Life, Because For A Brief Moment You Feel Okay.

I Spent So Much Of My Life Reading About Spirituality And Reading About Neuroscience And Trying Different Meditation Practices. It's A Really Big Part Of My Life. But It's Sometimes Hard To Talk About. There Are So Many People In The World Who Don't Live In Southern California And Don't Spend Their Time Meditating.

I Went To Columbia University Because They Were Doing A Study On People Who Suffered From Panic Attacks, And Because I Suffered From Panic Attacks My Whole Life, I Decided To Be A Part Of It. They Had This Questionnaire Where They Asked, How Many Units Of Alcohol Do You Have In A Month? The Top Answer Was 40 Or More, And I Got Really Scared Because I Was Having On Average 60 Or 70 Drinks A Week. And I Realized That That Was A Bad Sign.

People Have Always Been Resistant To Change. If You Go Back To The 17th, 18th Century, Playing Guitar Was Frowned Upon. When Rock N' Roll First Started, No One Took It Seriously.

I Like Tea And Yoga, But I Don't Do Yoga.

I Walk Out My Front Door In New York And I'm Out On The Street And There Are People Everywhere. L.a. Is So Much More Spread Out, So It's Really Easy In L.a. To Have A Little More Isolation And To Just Not See As Many People.

When I Saw Music As A Means To An End - More Fame, More Money, Dating Celebrities - That's When Things Have Gone Terribly Wrong. Now My Life Is Focused On Just Trying To Keep Making Music. Because When It's Really Good, It's Just The Most Remarkable Feeling On The Planet.

For His Sake I'm Sorry That Robert Johnson Sold His Soul To The Devil, But For Our Sake And The Sake Of Music I'm Glad He Did.

I Think It'd Be Great If Prince Made An Album Of Just Romantic, Slow Ballads.

I Have Actually Found Myself Buying Up More And More Old Analogue Gear. I Have This Strange Obsession With Old Drum Machines.

An Artist In 2014 Who Is Thinking About Album Sales Is Either Sadly Deluded Or Has To Make So Many Commercial Compromises That It Sort Of Takes The Joy Out Of Making Music.

The Good Thing About Not Being Drop-dead Gorgeous Is That As Time Passes, I Don't Have Much To Worry About. I Have Friends Who Are Actors And Every Day They Look In The Mirror With Trepidation.

In The Past I've Had Public Feuds With People, And I Have Really Not Benefited From Any Of Them. The Feud With Eminem Did Kind Of Torpedo My Career In The United States, But It Also Introduced Me To Middle America In A Way I Never Could Have Conceived Of.

I Think We’re Like Farm Animals Before An Earthquake.

I've Had My Charlie Sheen Moments, It Was Usually Just At The Mars Bar On The Corner Of First Avenue With Me And A Few Homeless Guys.

When I Was Nine Years Old, I Started Playing Guitar, And I Took Classical Guitar Lessons And Studied Music Theory. And Played Jazz For A While. And Then When I Was Around Fourteen Years Old, I Discovered Punk Rock. And So I Then Tried To Unlearn Everything I Had Learned In Classical Music And Jazz So I Could Play In Punk Rock Bands.

When I Say, 'i Love Christ And Love The Teachings Of Christ,' I Mean That In The Most Simple And Naive Way. I'm Not Saying I'm Right.

Sometimes People Will Think, I Need To Have Pre-sanctioned Spiritual Joy. Getting Joy From My Contemplative Meditation Practice Or Getting Joy From Reading Thich Nhat Hahn Books. Those Things Can Be Joyful But I Think It’s The Small, Simple Joys Of Playing With Dogs Or Having Sex With Someone You Love Or Going For A Walk Outside, Stuff That We Tend To Ignore.

One Of The Nice Things About Licensing Music To Movies Or Advertisements Is You Can Reach A Lot Of People Who Normally Wouldn't Hear Music.

The Moment That You Impose Your Will On Another Person Or Animal, That's When We Are Allowed To Say You Have Committed An Ethical Breach.

I Like My Coffee Like I Like My Romantic Partners: Cold And Bitter And Prone To Giving Me Anxiety Attacks.

I've Experienced Tons Of Failure. I've Been Making Music For 30 Years, And I'd Say Failure And Success Have Happened In Equal Measure.

Success And Failure

There's Not A Lot Of Precedent For Weird, Bald Musicians In The Lower East Side Making Records In Their Bedrooms And Going On To Sell A Lot Of Copies Of The Record. Especially If You Look At The Pop Climate.

I Look Back And Think Of All The Times I've Had To Let Things Go In The Past, And How Traumatic It Seemed While It Was Happening, But How My Understanding Of It Changed As Time Passed - And Oftentimes Things That Seem Really Difficult And Traumatic In The Short Term Seem A Lot Less Difficult And Traumatic In The Long Term. So I Remind Myself Of That.

Trending Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Category