Quotes About Music

I wanted to show the world, and myself too, what I can do. I came up in the world of Philadelphia soul, but I'm fluent in a lot of languages musically and I like working with different people from different generations.

We are serious about our music here in Philadelphia, and jazz has meant a lot to this city.

Doug Aldrich and I grew up in Philadelphia together, and Doug used to come and see a cover band that I was in. He was, like, 15 or 16, and I was, like, 18, 19.

When I was in college, the Roots, the sui generis ensemble from Philadelphia encompassing all manner of black music, played a show on campus.

Coming to Korea and becoming a singer, I always had two big goals personally. One was to be able to make it at some point so that I could do good things - I was always raised with an interest in social impact, philanthropy. The other thing was to be able to take my music and do it on a global scale.

I like Philip Glass. I think he's made some really great contributions to his field. I love his style of playing - it's very loop-style.

I may have done an every-night gig in Hong Kong because I was there for almost 16 years, and in Manila, Philippines, I did gigs there.

Apl, my bandmate, is from the Philippines. He came to America in 1989, and the first person he met was Will.i.am. And then, I met them when we were 17. Our common ground was music.

Journey are very big in the Philippines.

I want the kids in the Philippines to compete with the world, with other kids out there, to have the opportunity. You never know, you might find the next Black Eyed Peas out there.

I remember performing one-man reenactments of Miss Saigon' for my grandmother on her fireplace or dancing to Gwen Stefani in our hotel in the Philippines.

I learned Neil Young songs, Bob Dylan songs and older songs. It wasn't until I moved to Philly that I had aspirations to maybe forming a band.

Shout out to Daryl Hall. He is the best. One of my true musical heroes. He comes from the Philly area so when it comes to true soul, the guy obviously is the expert.

I'm not a DJ - I don't know how to scratch or mix records, but I know how to party, and I know music. I grew up in Philly; it's a very musical city. My house was full of music.

Philly DJs sort of always won battles and always won awards and stuff like that and were always super sharp.

For me, I listened to a lot of female jazz artists. And of course, the Motown and Philly sounds, all that stuff was very influential. And church and gospel.

It's very strange: if you're a philosopher or musician or an artist, people automatically believe you can see the future. Even if they don't like you, they accept your vision as an individual.

I didn't have a philosophical understanding of music until I came to New York. I didn't understand how it applied to my kind and my generation. I thought it was just old people talking.

It's not like I have this philosophical answer as to why I love rock.

Music does communicate across language and racial and religious and philosophical barriers. It is one of the most distilled forms of human emotions.

My philosophy at the moment is that I'm great - and so is everybody else. You have to fit your own oxygen mask. That's really my philosophy now: our band is the best band in the world. And so are all the other bands.

My music and lyrics became an extension of this Indian philosophy.

I make music that I know that people will enjoy, and balance the ideas and philosophy that we put in music with music that when we play it live, people can move to it and groove to it.

It's really only all about music. It's not like a big rocket scientist kind of philosophy or anything.