Quotes from Adrian Younge

Basically, if you work hard and practice an instrument every day, you'll learn how to play like a professional. You'll get better and better each day. And that's how it works for me. I wasn't magically inclined to play. I had to keep practicing and practicing to train my fingers.

Generally, as a composer, it's perceived as an employer-employee relationship.

I'm a film composer, but I'm a hip-hop guy.

I'm a hip hop dude who loves scoring for film.

I'm a huge Stereolab fan.

I tell people, 'I don't make music, I make worlds.'

I can't do too much musical movement with a lot of MC's, because they don't know how to follow me. But with Souls of Mischief, I could go anywhere because they are musicians - they rap as musicians, and they play instruments and produce, so they get that.

I grew up, and I'm getting the chance to make music with the people I idolized.

Having Ghost and Raekwon together on multiple tracks is almost like cheating because they fit so well together. Their chemistry is undeniable, and they clearly make each other better.

Luke Cage is seen in 'Jessica Jones,' but he doesn't really come into his own until the 'Luke Cage' series. That's when you really see who he is.

The ramifications that you set for yourself can inspire you to do things that you would have never thought of because, once you're trapped, your job is to persevere.

'Luke Cage' is a gift. There's so many different ways you can look at it.

I always feel like young people are more emotionally in tune with new and timeless music.

As a freelance artist, you have to please somebody instead of just making music. But when the employer trusts and leans on you to determine what is right for a scene or feeling, that's ideal.

It's important for a young black kid to see a Mexican hero, just to know that we're all equal.

I remember those moments in my life when the tape came out on that Tuesday, and I went to Sam Goody to cop it. And sitting and listening to it. In awe of the music I was listening to, but also imagining this music at the hip-hop clubs and with the homies in the car.

I love the song 'Picasso Baby,' and I think the performance art piece was brilliant. I love that fact that Jay Z is continuing to raise the bar on hip hop.

A lot of Ennio Morricone's music is just - it's very soulful, very cinematic, and very psychedelic.

To me, the Ennio Morricone kind of sound is a derivative of soul music.

I know all my different formulas to get certain sounds. I've been doing this so long that I don't experiment anymore. Or let me rephrase: I've been doing this so long that I don't have to experiment as much. You always want to evolve and change, but if I go in and I know it's a certain type of song, I know exactly where I'm going to place the mics.

I don't do anything digital. Everything is analog, and that's a limitation for me. However, in my world, it's not a limitation at all because I don't create the type of music that would generally be created by musicians that work with digital recording studios, and/or digital equipment, as far as production is concerned.

'Luke Cage' came out in 1972 at the height of the blaxploitation era. It was a literary response to this notion of blaxploitation movies. It was the first time in American culture that Hollywood was embracing black movies.

When I did 'Venice Dawn,' there were times where people would cry after listening to it.

My studio is fully analog. There's nothing modern. There's not even a computer in my studio.