People underestimate the hip-hop audience and the capacity to understand politics when it's part of music.
When I listen to a record, or when I'm making a record, I listen to everything. I listen to the drums, the bass, the voice, the arrangement. I listen to the whole piece as an ensemble. I don't only listen to the guitar player.
What I believe to be jazz is constructed and improvised music which is in the air right now. But I don't think that's most people's definition of jazz, you know? We don't know what we're talking about, because we don't know the definition.
When you do a lyric for 'April in Paris,' those who have heard it before can hear it in a different way now. It can add perspective to a great piece of music that does not have a lyric and may be inaccessible to lot of ears because people don't deal with complex music very well.
Until I can visualise what the lyrics are about and see the story or whatever, I can't hear the melody.
Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about.
There are many songs that have become popular and people sing along with it without knowing the meaning of its lyrics.
However, very recently I have come to an understanding that complex music is not necessarily pleasant.
We think we understand a song's lyrics but what makes us believe in them, or not, is the music
How we absorb music is unique. I know what I do. When I'm listening to music, I tend to find myself in a song. That's what really makes you connect is if you feel what that song is saying.
People assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me, that has never been the case. There are very few songs that I can think of where I remember the words.
People who understand music hear sounds that no one else makes when Frank Sinatra sings.
You can really walk around a song and completely, if it's a good song, look at it from a lot of different angles. Johnny Cash with Rick Rubin illustrated that perfectly.
I think it was T.S. Eliot who talked about good poetry being felt before it's understood. I believe that. There are some bands where I love their lyrics but I don't have a clue what they're on about.
Nirvana is next level. The songs are really cool to connect with on a more mature level, and I don't think I really understood that when I was 15.
Music is everything that one listens to with the intention of listening to music.
I still don't know how to read music.
I think it's exciting that fans can immediately pick up on what my music is about and what I'm leaning towards: that they get to actually feel it.
I think 'Invisible' is a great song, but I don't know how accessible it is.
As a musician, you never understand why people connect with certain songs.
I want to express the feelings that everyone has felt at least once in music so i think people will feel/understand my song.
You see, to me, the art of music is listening to it, not playing it. The real art of it is hearing it.
Rock & roll is not obscure, it's really easy to understand. So is my painting.
I don't even want to say I'm trying to necessarily popularize classical music, I just want to take this thing, this cello, this sound, and make it artistic so people can understand it today.
I do not write experimental music. My experimenting is done before I make the music. Afterwards it is the listener who must experiment.
