Background Image

...

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.

-Moby

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Up Until The Rise

Moby

...

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.

Views: 6880

Topic

More From Moby

I Like Singing, But It's Certainly Not My Strong Point.

Over Time, I Started Becoming More Aware Of The Vastness And Complexity Of The Universe, Which Led Me Away From Any Sort Of Conventional Christianity. I Still Love The Teachings Of Christ, But I Also Believe That The Human Condition Prevents Us From Having Any True Objective Knowledge Of The Universe. All Human Belief Systems Are Inherently Flawed. If I Had To Label Myself Now, I'd Call Myself A Taoist-christian-agnostic Quantum Mechanic. Also, There's Nothing In The Actual Bible That Limits A Christian In Their Interest In Science. Anti-science Is A Function Of Ignorant Fundamentalism.

If I Found Myself Married With Children And Had Tons Of Puppies And A Fun Place To Live, I Imagine I'd Be Happier, But I Kind Of Like Being A Little Bit Isolated And Lonely.

I Live In New York And I Love Hanging Out In Gay Clubs, And A Lot Of My Friends Are Gay. But, For Better Or For Worse, I'm Not Gay.

There's Nothing In The Actual Bible That Limits A Christian In Their Appreciation Of Or Interest In Science. Anti-science Is Purely A Function Of Ignorant Fundamentalism.

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.

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 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.

When I Was Growing Up, I Was The Most Pretentious Person I Have Ever Met. I Only Read Obscure Books And Watched Obscure Movies And Only Listened To Obscure Music.

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

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

Under No Circumstances Do I Ever Want To See Any Part Of Me Having Sex! I Wouldn't Want To See Video Tape, Pictures, In The Mirror, Nothing.

When I Was Growing Up I Was An Atheist, Then An Agnostic, And Then I Had A Good Eight Or Ten Years Of Being Quite A Serious Christian.

I Love Going On Tour And Playing Music For People.

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

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.

I Remember I Went To Berlin Right After The Wall Came Down. I First Went To East Berlin, And All The Buildings Were Old And Falling Down, And Now When You Go Back To Berlin, You Know You're In The East Because All The Buildings Are Brand New And Very Tall.

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.

If The Entire World Decided To Become Vegan Tomorrow, A Whole Host Of The World's Problems Would Disappear Overnight. Climate Change Would Decrease By 25 Percent, Deforestation Would Cease, Rainforests Would Be Preserved, Our Water- And Air-quality Would Increase, Life-expectancy Rates Would Increase, And Our Rates Of Cancer Would Plummet, So Certainly, With That One Action Of Becoming Vegan You Are Quite Effectively Making The World A Better Place.

Maybe It's A Form Of Overcompensation, But Whenever I've Toured, I've Always Needed A Huge Performance Component.

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.

A Few Years Ago, Before I Stopped Drinking, I Was Feeling Very Sorry For Myself And Very Drunk, And I Googled 'moby Sucks'. In Less Than One Second Something Like 20 Million Responses Came Up... Yeah, There Has Been A Lot Of Loathing Directed Towards Me, And It Used To Drive Me Crazy.

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?"

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

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

I Wish I Could Sing. I Don't Technically Have A Terrible Voice, But It's Certainly Not As Good As Most Of My Friends. Whenever I Hear Myself On A Record, It Just Reminds Me I'm Not A Very Good Singer.

Who Wakes Up When They're Worth £120million And Says, 'i'm Unhappy Today But If Only I Had An Extra £2million!'

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.

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.

I'm Just Fascinated With The World That I Can See, But I'm Even More Fascinated With The World That I Can't See.

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.

Whereas For Me, Touring Tends To Be A Very Strange And Isolating Experience.

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.

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.

In A Way I Almost Feel Like The Election Of Donald Trump Has Inspired Democrats And Progressives And Punk Rockers In A Way That Hasn't Been Seen Since Vietnam.

My Records Are Fairly Quiet And My Dj Sets Are Really Loud. And Then The Live Shows Are Like A Robot Soul Revue. So I Understand People's Confusion.

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.

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.

I'm Not Sure How Healthy It Is To Shoot Police Helicopters With Bazookas.

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.

My Interest In Gospel Music And Liturgical Art And Biblically-inspired Literature Has Nothing To Do With Organised Religion And Everything To Do With Human Beings Trying To Figure Out Their Place On This Planet.

A Lot Of People Do Talk About The Demise Of The Album, But I Still Believe That If An Artist Tries Hard To Make A Great Album, People Will Buy It And Listen To It As An Album, Rather Than Just A Collection Of Random Songs.

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.

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

Everyone Feels Awkward, Everyone Feels Uncomfortable, Everyone Gets Older, Everyone Gets Lonely, Everyone Gets Sick, Everyone Eventually Dies. You’re At The Aspen Ideas Fest, And You Have These Really Smart, Really Accomplished People Who Pretend Like They’ve Somehow Figured Out A Way To Bypass The Human Condition. We Live In This Culture Where There Are So Many Things That Want Us To Pretend That We’re Not Truly Human.

All Human Belief Systems Are Inherently Flawed.

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.

Let Peace And Beauty Reign.

I Think That, For A Lot Of Us, The Closer We Get To Showing People Who We Really Are, That's Where We Feel The Most Uncomfortable, The Most Vulnerable. But It's Also Where The Healthiest Growth Comes From. Like When I Can Really Open Myself Up To Someone And Show Someone Who I Really Am, It's Amazing When It Happens.

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.

For Me My Biggest Inspiration Is Trying To Make Music That Effects Me As Much As The Music Made By My Heroes.

There Are Some Public Figures Who Are Very Private And Almost Hide Behind Their Work. I Try To Be As Open As Possible.

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.

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.

Doing Interviews And Touring Are Two Ways That I Can Try To Bring My Music To People. It Can Be Tiring, But It's Better Than Working At Burger King.

I'm A Terrible Cook, So I Usually Eat Out With Friends.

I Love That Vinyl Is Actually Growing In Popularity, And That There Are So Many Great Record Stores.

You Could Almost Say That Throughout Human History There Are People Who Can Either Foresee Consequences Or Who Are Capable Of Looking For Information And Predicting The Consequences Will Happen, But The Vast Majority Of People Won't Respond To Climate Change Until Their City Is Underwater, Food Supply Is Disrupted Or Everyone Around Them Is Dying Of Zoonotic Disease. It's Almost Like Someone Dealing With An Addiction, Like You Hope That The Person Can Overcome The Addiction Before The Addiction Kills Them.

My Goal Is To Make One-not A Hodgepodge, But Just The Sort Of Record That I Would Want To Listen To.

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

One Can Only Snort So Many Ants And Have So Much Sex Before One Starts To Long For The Comfort And Companionship Of A Good Book.

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.

For Me The Most Important Issue Is Climate Change Because It In Some Ways Trumps Every Other Issue. Everything Else We Care About Falls By The Wayside If The Greenland Ice Shelf Falls Into The Sea. And If Suddenly Sea Levels Rise 21 Feet, Everything We Hold Near And Dear Ceases To Exist.

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

We Do All, Myself Included, We Tend To Hold Ourselves To Pretty Low Standards. But When It Comes To Judging Public Figures Or Politicians Or People We've Never Met, We Tend To Hold People To Very High Standards, And, If We Held Ourselves To Those Standards, We'd Always Fall Short.

A Part Of Me Wants To Sort Of Try And Sound Cool And Feed This Myth That I'm Some Sort Of Glamorous Lothario, But I Was Raised By Women - My Mother And Her Mother And My Aunts - And As A Result, Most Of My Friends Have Always Been Women.

I'm Straight, But I Love Going To House Music Clubs And Flirting With Women And Gay Men.

People Assume That Somehow Fame And Wealth Will Keep Mortality At Bay.

That's The One Thing You Wake Up With Every Day: How Long Have I Got Left? And That's The Saddest Thing In The World, Because You Have This Absolute Realization That Everything You Love You're Going To Have To Let Go Of And Give Up. I Look At My Daughter And I Think, There's Going To Be A Point Where I'm Not Going To Be Around For Her. Even The Thought Of That Breaks My Heart.

Success Usually Breeds A Degree Of Hubris.

For My Most Of My Career I've Been A Falling-down Drunk. Most Of My Interviews Were Done Hungover, And For A While It Was Great.

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.

More Often Than Not, Whenever Gossip Has Been Written About Me, The Gossip Is More Interesting Than The Reality. I Know Some Public Figures Hate Gossip, But Personally I Like It Because It Makes My Life Sound More Glamorous And Interesting Than It Really Is.

I Believe That The Role Of Limited Government Should Be Looking After The Needs Of Veterans, The Elderly, Children And Those Institutions That Improve The Quality Of Life For Struggling Families - I Don't Believe That Government Should Bend To Serve The Needs Of Subsidized Multi-national Corporations And Entitled Billionaires.

Music Is Just Air Moving Around.

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.

If One Of My Heroes Comes To Me And Says, 'do You Want To Work On Something?' I Just Say, 'yes.' I Don't Ask For Details; I Don't Expect To Get Paid Anything. I Just Love Working With My Heroes.

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.

A Lot Of People Have Realized That A Good Spiritual Practice And A Good Meditation Practice Have Real Benefit. It’s Not Just Something Nice To Do To Make The Universe Happy.

I Grew Up Obsessed With Science Fiction, And When I Was Really Young, I Wanted To Be A Scientist.

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

Can't Do Any Work With A Rock Star; You Have To Go Through Their Lawyers And Their Agents And Their Managers And You Have To Book Them Hotel Rooms. When You Work With Your Friends, You Just Call Them Up And They Come Over And You Record And Then You Go Out To See A Movie.

It Just Seems Like Musicians Want To Sell A Few Records And Put Out A Perfume Line, And I Think It's So Sad That There Are So Many Musicians Who Don't Want To Change The World.

Some Of The Songs I've Made, I'm Really Disappointed In How I Mixed Them.

I Change My Mind About Things - For A While I Was Punk Rocker, And If You Weren't A Punk Rocker You Were An Apostate. Then I Was A Dance Music Enthusiast, And If You Weren't A Dance Music Enthusiast, You Were An Apostate. I Was Carnivore, And If You Were A Vegan, I Didn't Want To Talk To You. Then I Was Vegan, And If You Were A Carnivore I Didn't Want To Talk To You.

When I Do Have Time To Work On Music, I'm Kind Of Selfish, And Would Rather Work On My Own Stuff Than Someone Else's.

I've Been Friends With Madonna For Ever. In Fact She Was At My 3rd Solo Performance In 1990, And There Were Only 10 People In The Audience.

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

For Me, New York Still Ranks As The Most Beautiful And The Most Interesting City In The World. It Is Also The Most Varied In Terms Of The Things It Has To Offer.

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.

There Is A Lot Of Music In The World That I Love That Does Not Always Get The Appropriate Exposure.

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.

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.

Have I Dated A Supermodel? Of Course Not. I'd Look Ridiculous.

I Don't Put A Lot Of Pressure On Myself When I'm Writing. It Feels Like If I Come Up With Something Good, Or I Come Up With Something Bad, I'm Not Too Worried.

This Isn't Like Naming Your Dog Spot.

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.

New York Is Such A Competitive Place; It Tears People Apart. People Come Here And, If They Can't Make It In The First Month, They Get Torn Apart And They Have To Go Back To Where They Came From. I Don't Think That's Terribly Healthy.

I Have To Say That Being A Vegan In 1986 Or Whenever Was A Lot Different Than Being A Vegan In 2012. You'd Go To Health Foods Stores And Basically Your Choice Was Between Mung Beans And Nutritional Yeast, And That's About It.

I Was Trying To Convince Myself I Could Learn To Be Gay - But No. That's One Of My Great Regrets.

People Who Meditate And Have A Good Spiritual Practice, Their Immune Systems Are Stronger. Generally, They Are Happier And Healthier.

When I Was Growing Up, All I Wanted To Do Was Fit In, But If You're Perpetually An Outsider, It Gives You A Perspective That Might Have A Little More Objectivity Than People Who Really Feel Connected To Their Social Environment In Which They Grow Up.

How Wondrous Familiar Is A Fool!

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.

There Are A Lot Of Musicians Who Are Still Desperately Trying To Pretend That It's 1998 And By Having A Huge Marketing Campaign, They Somehow Believe That They Can Sell 10 Million Records. That's Delusional. No One Sells 10 Million Records. The Days Of Musicians Getting Rich Off Of Selling Records Are Done.

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

You Have Climate Change And Antibiotic Resistance Which Are Two Of The Biggest Horses Of The Apocalypse, And They're Basically Breathing On Our Necks, And There's No Political Will Or Effort Being Expended To Deal With Them.

I Think That The Current Climate Enables A Lot Of Musicians To Do Relatively Well. Twenty-five Years Ago, You Could Be A Bass Player In A Folk-rock Band And Do Pretty Well - That Sort Of Means That You're Going To Have To Go Get A Day Job. But A Lot Of My Friends Have Learned How To Write Classical Music For Movies And Produce Other People And Do Remixes, And Dj And Go On Tour, And Do All These Different Things. The More Diverse Their Approach, The Better Their Chances Of Actually Having A Career.

La Is Such A Crumbling Mess Of A City. Basically In All My Years Of Travelling, I Haven't Found Another City In The Western World That Interest Me As Much As Los Angeles - Which Might Sound Like Heresy, But Most Cities, History Has Already Happened And The People Living There Are Sort Of Living On The Bones Of The Thousand Years Of History That's Already Happened There. Whereas La Is Always Reinventing Itself.

I'm Sure Most People Have This Experience: When You're Young You Drink, You Do Drugs, You Stay Up Late, And There Are No Consequences.

I Was Raised With This Idea That We're Supposed To Be Tolerant Of Other People's Opinions, But Then What Happens If Other People's Opinions Are Racist And Hateful And Wrong?

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

I Feel Like Someone Who's Meditating Could Possibly Benefit Their Meditation Practice And Their Well-being Just By Sitting Down And Thinking About Things That They Love For Ten Minutes.

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.

Over Time I Just Realised The World Is A Very Complicated Place, And There Is Not A Single Structured Belief System That Adequately And Comprehensively Describes Every Aspect Of Our Existence. So That Is My New Approach To Life And Spirituality - I Don't Know Anything, Except On A Very Naive And Subjective Level.

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

This Whole World Is Run By Brutes For The Common And The Stupid.

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

It's Better To Sail With A Moody Good Captain Than A Laughing Bad One.

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

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

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.

It's Heartbreaking That So Many Hundreds Of Millions Of People Around The World Are Desperate For The Right To Vote, But Here In America People Stay Home On Election Day.

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

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 Don't Want To Get Too Nuanced, But We Have The Electoral College In The United States And That Means We Don't Have Direct Democracy.

My Mother And I Were On Welfare And Food Stamps Until I Was 18, So I've Always Had This Ethos Of, Like, 'try And Make A Little Bit Of Money Now Because You Don't Know What's Going To Happen Tomorrow.'

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.

There Is A Dysfunctional Strangeness To Los Angeles That Doesn't Exist In Any Other Western City. The Roads Are Crumbling, No-one Knows What They're Doing, The City Government Barely Works.

I Buy Things With The Best Of Intention Of Living In Them And Then Life Intercedes.

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

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

I Won't Complain About Touring, Because I Really Do Believe That A Public-figure Musician Complaining About Being A Public-figure Musician Is Just Absurd. Like, 'boo Hoo Hoo! I Have To Stand On Stage And People Pay Attention To Me!'

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

Here Was Long Period On My Life When I Was Very Disappointed By The Fact I Wasn't Gay. Because I Grew Up Going To Gay Clubs, Living In New York And La, Both Very Gay Cities.

I Was Never Encouraged To Believe Anything. I Was Brought Up In A Profoundly Agnostic Or Pantheistic Community.

No One Wants To Be Hated, In Public, By Lots Of People.

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

There Are Viable (and Usually Better) Alternatives To The Use Of Animals For Food, Sport, Clothing, & Experimentation. I Beg You To Discontinue Any Actions That Might Cause Or Condone Animal Torture, Abuse, Or Destruction.

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

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

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

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.

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

If I Were To Be Really Petulant, I Would Say New York Is The One Doing The Betraying. Because The New York I Fell In Love With Doesn't Really Exist Anymore.

'arbitrary' And 'odd' Are The Words Which Best Describe The Pattern Of My Career. I'm Perpetually Baffled By The Whole Thing.

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.

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

I Feel Like The Vast Majority Of The World's Problems Would Disappear If Suddenly Everyone On The Planet Were Relatively Self-aware And Capable Of Honest Self-love And Compassion.

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

Keep Your Weather Eye Open, And Sing Out Every Time.

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

Honestly, The Most Vulnerable Part Of My Life Is Probably Just Honest Expression, As Cliché As That Might Sound.

If I'm Walking Down The Street And Someone Stops Me And Says, "oh! A Song That You Wrote Meant A Lot To Me, And I Listened To It After I Went To My Sister's Funeral," That's When It Hits Me.

When I Listen To Gospel Singers Pouring Their Heart Out To God, It's The Act Of Pouring Their Hearts Out That Interests Me.

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

I Learned In The Last Few Years That It's Really Unhappy And Really Unsustainable To Try And Base Your Well Being On Something As Arbitrary As Record Sale And Critical Acclaim And The Interests Of The Public. All Of Those Things Are So Fickle. So My Approach Now To Music Is I Want To Make Records That I Love, And I Hope That Other People Love Them, Then That's Ok.

I Don't Have Children, But I Imagine If Parents Are Really Pushed On The Subject, They Probably Have Favorite Children.

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!

I Will Be Very Sad When Global Warming And Toxins Kill Off All The Toads And Frogs And Salamanders. Here's Hoping We, As Humans, Figure Out A Way To Be Less Stupid.

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

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 Love Thich Nhat Hahn. One Of My Favorite Quotes Of His (and I’m Paraphrasing), He’s Talking About Cultivating Happiness, And He Was Saying, At The Very Least, Just Be Happy You’re Not At The Dentist Right Now. He Was Talking To Someone Who Was Having A Really Hard Time Finding Joy.

I'd Much Rather Go To A Banksy Art Show Than A Moby Art Show. My Art Is Painfully Naive.

As A New Yorker You Can't Help But Be Proud Of The Fact That So Much Music And Culture Started Here. Punk Rock, Jazz, Hip-hop And House Music Started Here, George Gershwin Debuted 'rhapsody In Blue' Here; The Velvet Underground Are From New York.

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.

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

The Reason I Didn't Like Cocaine Is It Made Me Do Stupid Things, Have Stupid Conversations, And Stay Awake Until 11 O'clock In The Morning Unable To Think, Read, Sleep Or Speak.

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.

When Someone Comes To Me And Says The Music I've Made Has Affected Them Emotionally, That's The Most Gratifying Part Of My Job.

One Of The Central Flaws In The State Of Contemporary Music Is That The Major Record Companies Have Failed To Incorporate That Simple Fact Into Their Business Plans. They've Come Into An Industry That's Based On Idiosyncratic Artists And Tried To Erase Every Idiosyncratic Aspect Out Of It.

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

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

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.

I Don't Think There's Anything Wrong With Not Knowing How To Play An Instrument, But The Rise Of The Non-musical Producer Has Done Away With Musicianship And Focused Attention Purely On The Song's Hook.

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.

You Make Mistakes And You Learn From Them.

Making Mistakes

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

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

Since I Stopped Drinking My Love Life Has Taken A Really Serious Hit. Romantic Encounters That Seemed Like A Really Good Idea At Three O'clock In The Morning On The Lower East Side? Less So In Sobriety.

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.

Sit Down, Close Your Eyes, And Think About Dogs For Ten Minutes. On A Very Clear, Physiological, And Neurochemical Level, Your Body Is Changed By These Really Positive Thoughts.

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

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

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.

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.

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

It's Almost Like A Sign Of Mental Illness To Base Your Self-worth On The Opinions Of Complete Strangers, You Know?

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.

Sacha Baron Cohen Is One Of My Heroes.

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

Ketamine's Such A Waste Of Time Drug. All You Do When You're On Ketamine Is Go: 'oh, I'm On Drugs. I Don't Feel Good, I Don't Feel Bad, I'm Just On Drugs...'

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.

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.

The Progressive Movement Needs More Crazy And Amoral/immoral Right-wing Politicians And Pundits Like Tom Delay And Newt Gingrich And Ann Coulter And Sean Hannity.

If I Had To Label Myself Now, I'd Call Myself A Taoist-christian-agnostic Quantum Mechanic.

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.

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

I'd Just Rather Have A Really Sharp, Interesting, Smart Gay Son Than Some Big Dumb Hetero Meathead.

Trending Author

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Alexander Skarsgard

Category