Alex Lifeson Quotes

What I love about jazz is the improvisation, the fact that you never know what's going to happen next.

In the performance sense, I find that interpretation is improvisatory in nature. You can go anywhere with an interpretation on any given day.

You don't know what inspires you. You like to think you know what inspires you, but in the final analysis I don't think you really do. It's great to look at a blank sheet of paper, you know, and walk up to an instrument and not know what's gonna happen. It's the most challenging thing I do.

With Zeppelin, I tried to play something different every night in my solos. I'd play for 20 minutes but the longest ever was 30 minutes. It's a long time, but whenI was playing it seemed to fly by.

What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it's about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you'll never do it this way twice. I've studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

You know what the material is so that you never play it the same way twice.

My formula is not thinking about what I'm doing; it's about still having fun and making music. I don't go into the studio with a thought pattern or certain goals in mind - sometimes I'll start with drums, other times I'll start with the piano - but it's all done spontaneously, so nothing is premeditated, and nothing takes a long time.

When I'm at home creating music, I usually wind up laughing. It's always, like, funny - like, what the hell did I just write?

Jazz is letting everybody do his or her thing with the music.

I never work out my leads. Everything I do is usually totally spontaneous. If someone says, 'That was good; play that again,' I'm not able to do it.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

It's cool to have instruments lying around because they give you different ideas.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

And more than anything, I like the improvisation of jazz. That's the same thing with DJ-ing. There's so much improvisation you can do with cuttin' and scratchin' that's reminiscent of jazz music, because it's all about how you feel. You're capturing a vibe and just going with it.

I never set out to write a certain kind of song, I just play my guitar and see if I catch something.

Going into a shoot not fully knowing what I want to do - that excitement, that thing that happens, is just so powerful and makes such great pictures.

I never know what I'm going to write next, and when I think I do I usually turn out to be mistaken.

I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it.

Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.

Often times, I'm surprised by what I'm writing or what I'm playing, and then that inspires me to keep going with it, so it ends up being a very adventurous process.

That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.

Any talk of 'craft' makes me laugh. My music looks outward; it does not gaze upon itself in admiration. Artisanal is for cheesemakers. I don't know anything about music theory. Every time I approach my guitar, it's like the first time. There's no craft in that.

I look at my clarinet sometimes and I think, I wonder what's going to come out of there tonight? You never know.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.