Quotes from Kevin Parker

Whatever it is that my heart wants, I'll do it, which is different than I used to be. I used to tell my heart what it wanted.

I'll write songs wherever I am.

My mum was quite poor, and my dad was rich. She didn't dig that, so she left him.

When I try and extract what it is about my music that I do or love or try to create, I'm never aware of it at the time. I just make something.

For me, the value of music is the value you extract from it.

The first time someone asked us for an autograph was the moment we realized we were doing something that most people spend their teenage years dreaming about, for sure.

Grunge gave me a sense of identity, and I remember really associating with 'Silverchair,' who were these chilled-out Australian teenagers. The fact that they were teenagers was a big deal for me. It was like, 'Oh, man, you don't have to be a 30-year-old to do this.'

It's funny how concert dreams are such a recurring thing among musicians. It's like how everyone has that dream of their teeth falling out? Except musicians have this dream of just standing onstage and there being all these people out there, and for some reason, the song isn't starting.

I write songs every day, but only a few of them get finished.

I never know when a record is finished until it's almost finished.

I was always putting songs on the Internet, but I was never into pushing them on anyone.

One of my mottos for 'Currents' was 'Give the song what it deserves.' How would this song flourish? If the song could tell me what it wants, what can I give it? I tried not to dictate it with any sensible or logical decisions.

Making music is all about forgetting about everything around you.

I make music that surfers dig, but, like Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys, I'm the dude who never gets on the board.

When I became a 'rock musician,' I assumed pop music was easy to write and that interesting rock music, or alternative music, was hard. It was only later I realised that writing a pop song is the hardest thing musically.

If I'm really jet-lagged and need to get to sleep, I just try and watch cartoons. As long as it's animated, I don't care - it has to have that distance from real life.

If I'm recording a song, and it's kind of fuzzed out, but I've got this super candy melody, I feel nothing but freedom that I can just sing over the top, and it will be appreciated. It won't be like, 'What is he doing?'

Once I've got something that I feel is strong, if I get long enough to think about it, it'll turn into something. I'll start thinking about the drums - what the drums are doing, what the bass is doing. Then, if I can remember it by the time I get to a recording device, it'll turn into a song.

I actually think looking to the past for inspiration is pretty redundant.

It's a lot harder to reach people's hearts than it is to reach people's brains.

In high school, I was an absolute derelict.

I don't think you can reach the same highs working in a band as you can on your own.

I love the Beatles, but I don't listen to them at all regularly. Most of my friends are bigger Beatles fans than I am. I respect them, and I love them - 'Abbey Road' is probably one of my favorite albums, but I don't think I've ever listened to the 'White Album' the whole way through.

I think after a long tour and after an album, your brain feels like it wants to relax, but at the same time, making music for me is something that comes kind of naturally. Just like a brain process.