Sarah Vaughan Quotes

Oasis are not just influenced by the Beatles; they actually take stuff. Then they get praised.

I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So I'm always looking for that angle in my own work.

I would be more familiar with Janet Jackson than I was with the Teardrop Explodes or Joy Division, because I didn't want to listen to my competitors for fear of nicking ideas off them.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

Exene taught me how to bend my notes when I sing. That's her style. And I learned that from her.

I think when we were starting out, it was more about imitating our songwriting heroes. We would try to write songs like Neil Finn, or we would try to write songs like Ray Davies, or we would try to write songs like Glenn Tilbrook.

Singers like Gladys Knight are mostly responsible for how I learned to sing.

As a kid, I was trying to copy what I heard. Namely, I was just listening to producers I looked up to, like 45 King and Marley Marl, and trying to do what they were doing.

Our influences are who we are. It's rare that anything is an absolutely pure vision; even Daniel Johnston sounds like the Beatles. And that's the problem with the bands I'm always asked about, the ones derivative of the early Seattle sound. They don't dilute their influences enough.

Growing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically.

Yeah, Dizzee Rascal is a huge influence on what I'm doing. I learnt a lot from him even though he's younger than me.

I'll be honest. We copied everyone... the Beatles, the Bachelors. It was the only way people would even listen to you.

In 1940 I came across a record by Jimmy Yancey. I can't say how important that record is. From then on, all I wanted to do was play the blues.

For the most part, I've been influenced by black singers and singers I couldn't sound like. Whenever I tried to do a dark note or a bent note, I would just sound like Hootie And The Blowfish.

All too often, when creative people pick out someone else's creative work as an inspiration, what they end up with is very, very far from the original.

This record has a lot of influences that I'd love to cover, like Marvin Gaye and Earth, Wind and Fire. Maybe I'll do some covers of my major influences during my live show.

Yes and for two reasons: one, I couldn't find anything to imitate at the time, and secondly because what I heard on the radio didn't bear any resemblance to what I wanted to hear on the guitar.

I remember the first time somebody played me Janis Joplin. My friend Donna put on Janis Joplin, and she said, 'You're like her.' At the time, I wasn't even a singer; I was a drummer. I just wanted to play the drums.

Hearing Radney Foster was big for me, like hearing Al Green or R.E.M. for the first time.

It's easy for a singer to sometimes pick up on another singer's sound, but that's just copying.

It's too easy to unconsciously echo another novelist's voice while reading fiction, a habit of mimicry I probably picked up as a musician.

If you look at any creative person's work, you can see bits and pieces of their influences. That's what an artist does.

I think '80s pop music subconsciously informs what I'm doing.

The whole '400 Degreez' album was inspired by what Outkast was doing, Organized Noize. That was what I was listening to around that time.

There's nothing new, even 'new' is inspired by something. We're all, either consciously or unconsciously, we're inspired.