Perfume Genius Quotes

It's amazing to me to see how bands evolve and how they take all their influences and come up with their own sound.

When I first decided I wanted to make beats and write songs and stuff like that, it wasn't like I sat down and the first thing I wrote was even halfway legit. It took a while to find my way through it.

When I listen to and play the songs from 'Narrow Stairs' now, that record feels like a record where we had established a style that arguably was more our own than it was in the beginning. Going into that record, I felt a lot more confident in my songwriting. It was a fairly prolific time for me.

I grew up listening to everything. I have such a love for music, but I don't want to make the same album over and over again.

I've been making music for a long time, since I was very young, but at the same time, I'm still exploring what works for me. I feel like I'm just starting out.

On 'Heartbreaker,' I had to sing those songs. I drank the way I did those songs. I ate the way I did those songs. I communicated the way I did those songs. With 'Gold,' I was trying to prove something to myself. I wanted to invent a modern classic.

Every time I write a song my approach changes.

I just go into the studio, look at the lyrics for the first time when I put them on the piano, and go. If I haven't got it within 40 minutes, I give up. It's never changed, the thrill has never gone, because I don't know what I'm going to get next.

In my honest opinion, in 'Volumes I' and 'II,' we were still trying to figure out our sound.

My first year making music was very experimental. I was trying to find my sound. My second year, I was more in my element. I knew what type of production I wanted to go over and the topics I wanted to address.

Songwriting was definitely first. I started singing, and then I was rapping; then I went back to singing. As I was growing up, I just taught myself piano and guitar.

I always try to evolve my sound - innovate, improve, be different but still Martin Garrix. It all starts with an idea in my head, which I work on until it starts to shape itself into a track.

I'm just writing less of my own music lately - I go in and out of phases a lot. Sometimes there are these accidents that just sort of happen, that are kind of waiting around the corner. I guess Modest Mouse was one of them.

We consolidated the style of 4Minute by experimenting with different sounds throughout the years.

If you actually go back and listen to my first album, there are some things on there that are kind of rock 'n' roll.

When I first started playing, I plunked away just like everyone else. During the Sixties I played in a blues band for a few years, and I liked it. It wasn't until I was playing for a while that I made the decision to change my style from a percussive to more of a legato approach. I just wanted a different sound.

I wanted to play rocking country music, and when I started out in the late Seventies, it took me a couple of albums to figure out how to do that.

It took me a long time to stumble upon a sound, and I figured out I wanted to kinda sing rapper's lyrics.

I don't go into any album with pressing issues. I just try to write songs.

I feel like every time I write a song, it feels like the first time I wrote a song. It's just as hard; it doesn't get easier, but that's why I love it: because it's a challenge every time. I also feel like I'm learning new ways.

Now, when we first started, I would be playing something good and then feel like I wasn't doing the right thing and launch into some idiotic cliche. Luckily for me, Bobby was patient.

I'm trying to change the root of funk, trying to make it more progressive, more melodic and more lyrically structured.

I think that every band tries to mature their sound through their existence, you know?

For me, something will come in my head and I'll either end up calling my cell phone to record it, or I'll just pick my guitar up and see what comes out. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't. So there's really no set method behind it.

Any band on their first couple records is just trying to keep up with their inspiration.