Quotes from Lou Barlow

I put all my big revelations into songs when I was in my 20s; as you get older, revelations are harder to come by.

Young bands are so angry. There are young bands that are so incredibly successful, getting incredible reviews, and they are totally angry.

The Music Machine is my favorite rock band ever.

I don't know if i have a 'take' on L.A. The music community is enormous, from the studio musicians to the bands trying to 'make it' to the indie bands... so many bands... it can be overwhelming. But it seems healthy.

I have really severe tinnitus.

It just takes me awhile to get comfortable in any situation.

When I first started writing songs, I did play with my fingers, and I had these kind of weird strums. There's, like, three or four strumming patterns that seemed kind of unique to me.

I'm fully aware, I've gotten terrible reviews my entire career. It's not a really big deal; it's something I can deal with.

Worry is a big part of my life. I definitely worry a lot.

When you're in a band, it's kind of a big thing to be friends as well.

At 12 or 13, I picked up a guitar because my mother made me learn how to play.

If you put heavy, regular classic guitar strings on a baritone ukulele, it gets pretty low. It has a really nice, low, warm feel to it.

Every show I play is like a little celebration of something in my life that has gone really well.

'Brace the Wave' is an acoustic-electric record recorded with electricity on analog-digital and digitally-analog equipment.

I think all food except for maybe pizza and Mexican food is better in Japan.

Literally everything I do is either write songs and play music, or I'm immersed in my domestic life.

I've learned by experience that, if I get too clever with lyrics, or if I'm not totally embodying my own wants and needs in the songs, I can't remember them.

I wrote a song for my sister's wedding.

Maybe I can't write without painting myself into a corner first.

I keep the tantrums to a minimum because people don't want to see that.

For me, it's hard to enter any situation with people where we're considering everyone equals, because I bring all of this massive baggage into anything that I do, preconceptions of my work. That's a lot for the people that I might be bringing along with me to bear.

Just from the beginning, I really liked playing around with tape recorders. And then, when I got into punk rock, I only really liked - the rawer it was, the more I was into it.

I went back and reread the Dinosaur chapter in 'Our Band Could Be Your Life,' and it was so depressing.

Coming back to Dinosaur Jr. and actually writing songs for the band was really intense for me.