Quotes from Ron Mael

I have a huge interest in sports, and I study the way athletes operate throughout their careers.

The device of speaking directly to the listener is as old as Shakespeare's asides and probably much older than that. Still, we try to balance those moments with many more moments of utter sincerity and I believe the same is true in 'Annette.'

Our main love has always been pop music. We love the restrictions of it in a certain sense, the length and the repetitiveness. But then how much can you get away with - our intention is always to stretch ourselves.

One reason we've been able to do what we do is that we never put our music into any kind of historical perspective.

Gould recorded Bach's 'Variations' twice but the 1955 one was so fresh. He had a quirky approach to playing and he looked better than anybody: he would lean back on a tiny stool, wearing overcoats and scarves.

When I think of Venice Beach, my father's painting is what comes to mind.

To us the music is the most important element and they lyrics are something that adds an extra element.

We always start with the music even though people assume that the lyrics are the essence.

We're not trying to be esoteric. There is that about what we do, but we like to be there at the table with everybody else, commercially speaking.

When we first started it was just Russell and myself and a guitar player, Earle Mankey, and unlike virtually any other band in Los Angeles, we began by recording rather than playing live, and so we had no feedback at all on what we were doing and we didn't realise how unusual it was.

We're always just trying to keep ourselves interested enough to make music that will excite other people in the same way that we feel excited doing it.

I never felt comfortable with long hair so it didn't make sense to be looking that way.