Walter Becker Quotes

You're always in a different headspace when you make each record, so hopefully they're all different. You just pick up things that you wish you hadn't done on the first one.

The first five albums I did, I tried a little bit of everything. I was trying not to conform at all.

As an artist, you tend to gravitate to the opposite. I know, when I finish a song or an album, I'm interested in doing something completely new. It doesn't always happen, but that's the idea. My poor fans - I don't know if they love that or hate that.

I love hip-hop and soul, but I desperately want to challenge it and see what I can bring to it.

Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

Every time I write a song my approach changes.

One of the things that always was Fall Out Boy was trying new things and kind of pushing ourselves in different directions.

I think if anything, what 'The Astonishing' proved is that we're always going to experiment.

The only intention I've ever had creatively, as a musician, is to be as different from myself as possible.

The only way I'm comfortable with a new album is if I'm taking a new risk.

I'm always going to be experimenting musically, trying new things.

I could have pigeonholed us and wrote a whole record like 'Pumped Up Kicks,' and we would have been this breezy, nostalgic West Coast Beach Boys recreation band. That's not the type of writer I am. Once I try one style, I move on.

And I'm interested in writing music that takes risks. My point is that maybe the term EDM is pinned on me and my buddies, but maybe it'll be less so if I experiment.

I always make a point to make my records different. Let's say I have a record that's influenced by hip-hop in an abstract way; for the next record, I'd try not to do that. They are all connected in a personal way but it's important not to repeat myself, because then I can always learn something about myself through my work.

I feel like my music is like - there are always new influences in there.

I think that all my albums are different enough where I don't feel like I did this the last time.

I think it's always important to constantly keep the band on their toes and try new things that you hope will work. That's how 'Apologize' was born, and maybe down the line another little song will be born by that mentality. I've always really liked that song.

I would have to say I'm bored with the standard rock, guitar solos, but I've done it for five albums now, and this time I wanted to go in a completely different direction. I wasn't interested in showing off any more.

I don't ever try to make a song better than my last song. I just try to make it different from my last one.

But I've always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what's expected of me, and I've always been able to do more than you necessarily hear with every band I've ever played in.

People are really set in their ways in how they produce records, and I was at least open enough to where I knew I wanted to do something totally different.

I never thought that I would be creating my own 'cross-over' genre. What I did was very real and organic. I have worked in so many different styles so it all just came together.

Hip hop is doing the new rock thing; there are no rules. They can do anything, really. And that's inspiring.

In the beginning of rock n' roll, there was always innovation. Artists were always trying to do something new and something different.

To keep creating something with this type of music, you have to take it out of the box.