I'm probably tougher on myself than I used to be. I'll revise my lyrics more. Part of that is working with the right people and producers who will say, 'How can you make that better?' Allowing yourself to collaborate with people will push you toward transcendence.
Building upon the world we created with 'Avatar' has been a rare and incredibly rewarding experience. In writing the new films, I've come to realize that 'Avatar's world, story and characters have become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen.
If you listen to the old Rock I always had one tone of rapping, but now I'm learning how to stretch out my voice and use it in different ways.
I've been doing theatre for years, but film acting has broadened my horizon.
As an artist, I think it's important to always keep growing, and I definitely want to keep challenging myself.
My music's matured so much, I don't have to create any barriers.
People always ask us, 'When are you guys gonna do a movie? When are you gonna do a TV show?' And to me, that feels like such a step backwards from where are.
In an ideal world, as a director, you usually wish you could do your own thing and not have to take anyone else's point of view into account, but occasionally you work with someone like Robyn, who brings a new set of ideas to the table, and the whole ends up much greater than the sum of the parts.
I want to grow as an artist, and I'm taking a step out. I want my music to mature.
I want to do more R&B, more reggae, everything.
As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion.
Time moves too slowly for me to notice any evolution in my creative tendencies.
The more I grow as an artist, the more I think I become like my father as an artist. The more I diversify, the more I become like my father, which is true to who he was.
I always think that you finish one movie, you start a new one, and you think, 'OK. I did that last one. Now I've learned. I know how this works.' Then by the end of the movie, you think, 'No, I don't, really.'
I guess I see 'Goo' half as a really New York record because I think there are a lot of really particular New York references on it, but I also see it, for us, as the first of our records that really opened up to the larger world around us.
When I was doing 'Formula Volume 1,' I had so many ideas that I knew one album was not going to be enough.
I think that new artistic challenges help you grow both as a person, as an artist, and then they feed back into your other work, and tend to magnify it.
Our first two records are a lot quieter and more studio-based. We kind of had this feeling like we wanted to make a more quote-unquote 'rock' record. Then Patrick joined and really brought a new Herculean power to the band.
I feel like I introduce another level of my creative ability on every album.
Charles Bean is a brilliant director. I come in with an idea and try to do it, but I fall on my face. And then, he says, 'Wait a minute, there was a little moment in there. Let's try that moment and expand in that direction.'
I think it's important to widen my artistic repertoire.
As an artist, you have to work hard for things that you can't really hold in your hand. I work not for money but for my career, to expand myself as an artist. Every video I make, it's not making me any money; it's just because I want to expand.
I think being part of Pentatonix has helped my arrangement style a lot, and that's helped me expand myself.
People think, 'Oh, well how can 'The Hobbit,' which is one book, become three films?' But you can take one line from an appendice and it turns into a whole sequence.
If I could be generous and move forward and spread my feelers business-wise and also creatively, that's the best position to put myself in.
