Quotes from Taylor Goldsmith

I write these songs and I like the idea of letting the band interpret it as they will. This band is like any band; it's not just me. This isn't just a way for me to play my songs. There are four distinct artistic voices, and they deserve to be expressed.

I read actual books. It's cool to read on a Kindle if that's what you want to do, but for me, I like having a bookshelf.

I get the biggest kick out of it, to hear words that I wrote and chords that I wrote being sung by somebody else.

It's easy to look at kids sitting around a campfire looking at their phones and to think, 'What a shame.' But I think they're going to be more advanced in terms of communication than my generation.

I feel like we're very lucky in the sense that Dawes can be the kind of band that plays with Bright Eyes or M. Ward but that also plays with Bob Dylan.

When we made 'North Hills,' I had never heard Warren Zevon, and I never heard the Grateful Dead. I had never heard of Jackson Browne.

When I discovered Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, I could explore the records that inspired me on a different level and that led me to Joni Mitchell, who is maybe my favorite of all time, and Warren Zevon. Those artists that wrote the lyrics that you try for.

When you see yourself as the center of things, it deprives you of a certain level of empathy.

I know a lot of bands that will make their first record and get to a certain level, and then when the second record comes out, they can start where they left off as a headlining act playing in front of a certain number of people, or they can go back out and make a lot less money and open for people.

I have big plans to read books over again, but I've never re-read anything. The only books I've read over again are the books I didn't pay attention to in high school.

We've just always felt like we had a product onstage that represented us.

All of the people we admire have extensive catalogs, so what's most exciting about people responding well to the band is allowing us to continue making as many records as we can.

We've always been fans of groups like Little Feat, Steely Dan, the Eagles, or Dire Straits that have that quality. Bands that sometimes are perceived as not the 'cool' band, because they're so good in a technical sense.

A song like 'Telescope' was about a friend of mine. He doesn't know it's about him.

That the longer you can work and stay in people's peripherals, the more likely folks might be to acknowledge you and know that you're there.

I think it's important to always stay critical. But rather than dwelling on it and wishing I could change something, it's important to just take those lessons learned and those new notes and apply them to the next thing.

I'm in my early thirties. I live in Los Angeles, California. I'm an artist.

I wasn't really much of a reader early on, but when I first started getting into reading at around 16 all I could really read was Kurt Vonnegut books.

Dawes is a rock 'n' roll band playing guitars, writing songs, working in a certain tradition. Through our attitude and personality, I hope, you can hear a song and go, 'That's a Dawes song.'

I feel like a lot of artists, when they're on their fourth record, they're perceived as the old guys. At least in this day and age. I like that people perceive us as just getting started because that's how we perceive ourselves.

I aspire to be someone like Gillian Welch. What she does is play part of a group with two acoustic guitars with harmonies. She plays folk. However, there is no one that sounds like Gillian Welch. I aspire to come up with a unique sound like she has.

When you see a Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty or Jackson Browne show, the impression you get is that you'd love to have a beer with them. That's the image they project.

When you go back and listen to 30 years of Tom Petty records, they are pretty consistent. I love that.

When we were putting together 'One Of Us,' we were just following our impulses and what felt good.