Quotes from Taylor Goldsmith

When people do, or say, things we don't believe in, forgiveness can feel disgusting. But when you try to think of someone who isn't worthy of it, it's hard to find an example.

When I think of bands that have maintained a certain level of success all along - Metallica, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers - no matter what anybody thinks about them, you have to look at them and say, 'Wow, those guys operated under the most pressure.'

We let the lyrics be the focus of the song. Which is not what you hear with some of the zeitgeisty bands, like the War on Drugs, who I love, their lyrics are usually buried and The National, one of my favorite bands, Matt Berninger writes in fragments, in a very impressionistic way.

I know some bands that don't like touring and are able to make a living producing other bands. There are a lot of ways of carving a living out, but it's become tougher and tougher to figure out what that means.

I don't really work on songs when we're touring because there's just too much other stuff going on.

Our dad was a singer and keyboardist and was in bands throughout his whole life. He was in a band called Sweathog that opened for Black Sabbath and eventually was the lead singer of Tower of Power for a few years.

We've always tried to inspire ourselves, so to speak. In the beginning, that could mean just hearing your own songs played back to you for the very first time.

There are times, like with Dire Straits, where you can get as close as you can be to being good at your instrument and not cross over to that tasteless place.

I think that there's a singular emotion that goes along with what the bands that we love mean to us. I feel like people feel represented by that in a way that you don't get from saying, 'Oh, I like this book' or 'I went to college here' or 'This is what my job is.'

Books look handsome and it's a real singular experience getting to go to a bookstore. I don't want to not do that.

And that's the case with all of James McMurtry's songs. He never presents these characters for us to judge, but only to sympathize with. He has a capacity for compassion with every sketch that he makes with a person that he is not.

I think there are ways a place can sneak its way into a song, or a feeling that you take into the studio.

And rather than judging and alienating others, I do think there's an opportunity that no one is taking, myself included, to actually understand why somebody is coming from a certain place.

Unfortunately it's easy to just label us as part of a Laurel Canyon sound. What we try to do is to be unique.

And so to me, I've always thought the kinds of fans that I want is the kind of fan that I am, which is when I subscribe to an artist, I'm yours. I'm on board.

When we record a song, like 'Bedside Manner,' it's important that the next time I write a somber, mid-tempo song that we don't treat it the same way.

Sometimes songwriting can turn into a gossip column, and I try to avoid that as much as I can.

Laurel Canyon and Dawes have become linked in a way that I think is misguided, frankly, to tell a new fan what we sound like. But at one point maybe it wasn't.

I actually like social media, and I recognize what modern technology serves.

So, hopefully, us finding ways to constantly work, but always with a different product, will help our band play to more people and continue making music.

I love the idea of having a beer with a lot of the musicians I admire.

For five albums, I would create an image of someone that wasn't true to who they were. I'd be in love with an idea. It's not an uncommon problem.

I love Santa Barbara and have always dreamed of someday having enough money to have a spot up there.

If what you do for a living is play drums or bass, then that defines you. You don't want to be some guy missing notes here and there; you want to really speak with it.