Varied Influences Quotes

Influences come from everywhere. I don't really feel like I had too many influences for the first record because I grew up listening to music in church, and that was pretty much it. I didn't really grow up listening to AC/DC and all those bands.

I'm an ecumenical reader, grew up with all sorts of fiction, teach writing, went to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, so my tastes and interests are broad.

There are so many different points to 'Wild World,' and it sounds quite different to what people would expect from us.

My father had a varied ear, from Hank Williams to Ravel.

I have musical ADD or something, and I get bored doing the same thing over and over. I love different sounds, different influences.

The films that influenced me were so disparate that there's almost no pattern.

I've always been drawn to all sorts of genres and all sorts of voices.

I have so many different role models who have taught me so many different things at so many different points in my life, it doesn't feel like I have one person that I have to live up to.

I listen to a lot of choral stuff at home, but I'm also liking Labrinth, Emeli Sande, Tom Odell and Wretch 32.

We need a variety of input and influence and voices. You cannot get all the answers to life and business from one person or from one source.

I'm jamming 'Black Sabbath Vol. 4' all the time. Zappa's 'Cruising With Ruben & The Jets.' A lot of Gong lately. Some Hawkwind. The Residents' 'Duck Stab' is amazing. Some Fugs. Lots of stuff, man. I'm pretty schizophrenic with records.

It came from my mother. She was a singer, and literally every day of the week she sang at a different club in a different genre of music: country, R&B clubs, jazz clubs, church on Sunday morning where she was the music director, pop hits, soft rock. I grew up listening to all this music, so it was never one thing for me.