Fred Frith Quotes

When we first started playing we did a lot of rehearsing. We used to write out everything. In fact, that's the way everybody rehearses: we play the tunes and improvise.

I love working with the quartet. I have more freedom and flexibility.

Yes, I'm a musician. I also like to play with others, sometimes more, sometimes less.

The magic of playing has to do with how much everyone wants it to succeed. If you have five players in a situation where the music is being improvised and one is determined it is not going to succeed, it won't succeed even if one of the musicians takes control.

I think the challenges for me was to go into the studio with these incredible jazz players and come up to their level of excellence. That's always a challenge.

It's such a joy to work with different ensembles and create a collaboration. Rehearsing and building a performance is very interesting for me.

I'm a keen musician. Me and my mates have a great times jamming and recording stuff. We have a great band behind us and have turned my nursery-rhyme songs into quite credible pieces of music.

I like being with the band, the whole idea of playing music with them.

Everybody does their homework, and we all come together and just knock it out. There are adjustments to make, and if you have actors who are collaborators and who really know how to listen and be in the scene together, than it works out beautifully.

I love collaborating because I come from the world of being in bands.

I've always worked with other people. As a musician, it's your role to basically share with other people.

I do like playing music with other people.

I love seeing people collaborate to make great music!

Any musician in any band - for a really good band - you know your part in the band.

I see myself as a composer who plays music and likes to play with other people, and not just as a solo artist.

I love being in a band. I love that collaborative spirit, although some would suggest that I don't get involved in the collaborative spirit, but it's not true.

I grew up doing sitcoms and theater and even playing with the Beach Boys, where you're programmed to perform, your body gets into a rhythm and you know it has to perform.

I'm an interpreter of music.

What I've always lacked is a really strong band to back me up.

Good music comes out of people playing together, knowing what they want to do and going for it. You have to sweat over it and bug it to death. You can't do it by pushing buttons and watching a TV screen.

Classical stuff takes a lot of rehearsal time and preparation, but with stuff that involves improvisation, you can over-rehearse it and it gets stale. You don't want it to be too comfortable. In fact, a good sound check, a good rehearsal usually means a bad performance.

I just love the process of working with other actors.

I don't know if they were all functioning, but I did play in a bunch of bands.

With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'

I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.