Quotes About Music

Being a purely instrumental album, it makes a musical statement, not a religious one, and I hope that people can feel the emotion of the great melodies, even without the words.

I love radio, but it's a very limited thing today. Everything has to be edited down to 3:59, and too bad if I didn't make my statement in three minutes and 59 seconds. Everybody's song has to make its point so quickly.

Several record companies had rejected my song 'Owner of A Lonely Heart' on the grounds it was 'too left field.' I never create to make a hit just to satisfy some record company executive's quarterly profit statement.

This is a public statement: I'm in favor of mixtapes.

When I sit down and try to write lyrics first - I've definitely done that in the past - but most of the time, they come off as a put-on, or less genuine than you would think. I'm the kind of guy that if I overthink a sentiment or I overthink a statement, it's weird.

I sing in Arabic as a statement. It's art, and it's a challenge.

In a very broad statement, or mentality, you just want as many fans as you can have of your music. You want people to write songs for and connect with and play shows for.

With a lot of songs, songs that don't make a good statement, I forget the words.

Here's the thing: we don't write music for a universal statement; we just share our experiences. And that's all it is. It's always raw and very authentic.

Baby Got Back' was already a reflection of what was going on. I didn't see it as this gigantic political statement.

Me wanting to play in Israel is not me making a statement about what's going on there.

I'm not trying to get across some sort of message or statement. I'm just literally trying to write the best songs I can write. It's all that matters.

And for it to make the statement the way that it did, for 'Controlled Chaos' to debut in the Top 10 of the iTunes rock chart... We debuted behind Queen and Chris Cornell, so it's not like we were just hidden away in the back of the instrumental metal category.

It's not like we were setting out to make a political statement - we're just a band with opinions.

I've had statements made - 'Who in the heck wants to hear a 60-year-old singer?' That statement was made - it's disheartening, you know, because you say, 'Well, hey, why should a guy feel like that about it?'

I think that's the place ideally we'd like to get to as well, as queer people, where you can just judge the music for what it is and not just because it's gay. I think it's important that until we get to that place, statements have to be made, and we have to be loud and outward, so that's where I'm coming from.

I make my music to express everything I feel is necessary to communicate at a given time. Through music, I can express myself with statements that are more nuanced and more contradictory than factual details.

Cryptic messages and abstract statements are littered throughout the music of Happy Birthday, but it hasn't made the band's sun-baked pop-rock any less infectious.

Before the music and before the fame, I loved Apl for Allan Pineda, for being a brother that he is and for the inspiration - for him to actually come to the States from the Philippines and make something of his life. That's inspirational.

My parents had a lot of movie soundtracks that they brought back from the States. So very early on I heard film music at home.

The first city I ever came to in the states was Des Moines. I was 12 and was in a boys' choir.

When I'm on a plane, I am the annoying person humming into my phone. Sitting there static with nothing to do, a lot of melodies come to me. So I've written a lot of songs on planes.

As the chord changes go by, I don't so much think about a static chord voicing changing. I just see the notes on the neck change.

I hate modern car radios. In my car, I don't even have a push-button radio. It's just got a dial and two knobs. Just AM. One knob makes it louder, and one knob changes the station. When you're driving, that's all I want.