Musical Focus Quotes

The music is the main thing and it's just as easy to write acceptable words.

I'm writing new music all the time. I'm just not writing pop stuff. It's not my goal.

Jazz is not background music.

I've always been such an album-driven artist that I never really stopped to think about how cool it would be to just have one really big song.

I have a great body, I really do. But I want to be taken seriously as an artist, and wearing anything that shows it off will be a distraction from the music. That's how my signature uniform, my tuxedo, came about. It's classic and timeless. You'll see me in black, white, and a pop of color on my lips. That pop adds a little magic.

I just couldn't take school seriously: I had this guitar neck with four frets which I kept hidden under the desk. It had strings on it so I would practice my chord shapes under the desk and that's about all I did at school.

Growing up in a bluegrass or acoustic-oriented world, the musicians become so focused on performance, as far as playing. We tend to overanalyze the notes, so you're always trying to sharpen everything up.

Our show doesn't rely on the typical whistles and bells, and smoke and mirrors. It relies mostly on the music.

I think the main focus as a musician should be to play the music you love to play, and the rest is going to come naturally.

A lot of drummers get sidetracked by the instrument. It can engulf you.

When you try to put everything into music, there's no room left to try to make you think we're cool. We know you think we're cool.

Music was my life...It was everything to me, even though I was in school majoring in English. I was still very focused on music and always finding ways to perform, so that was what set me up to want to become a recording artist.

I'm too busy playing to worry about the movement or the fingerboard.

What it comes down to is, Kiss has always been a beast that has this tendency to run wild, and it needs attention and nurturing. If people are always running off and doing other projects, which has been the case, somebody has to be there for stability.

I can't do anything but play guitar.

During the whole time in Sonic Youth, I was happy to put my energy into that. It would have been very difficult to do a solo project.

Finger-picking, in general, is a hypnotic thing. I feel like I'm more A.D.D. all the time, so the music has to be hypnotic.

On those long notes behind the trumpet solo, if anyone lets his mind wander for a minute he is dead.

I'm quite certain that the audience that I've got for my stuff don't listen to the lyrics.

[On bebop years] All I did was sing 'How High the Moon.' It seemed like the only song I ever sang.

I want to do music, and I want that to be the highlight of everything that I do. I want that at the forefront.

I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs.

If I'm in the studio, I'm completely on music. I try to go to that place and that's the toughest thing for me to do. When I'm with other musicians, sometimes I go back to, almost like, childhood, because that's what I always wanted to be.

It's not that I don't care how I look, but I'd rather turn the attention to the music as much as possible.