Quotes About Artistry

I thought it was magic to be able to catch something identically on tape and then be able to play around with it, run it backwards; I thought that was great for years.

I don't take any shorts. I don't say, 'Okay, it's good enough.' I try to get exactly what I'm hearing in my head to the tape, and I won't let it move until then.

You put a song on the record or on tape and you stop singing it. You just don't sit around and sing it anymore unless you're performing. That's kind of sad.

My dad bought a Beatles tape when I was in fifth grade, and that was the first time I ever really - I mean I was into music, but that was the first time it really blew my mind. When I heard the 'Red Compilation,' which wasn't like a proper album, I thought, 'music was more than I had ever thought it was before.'

A lot of the time, when I'm choreographing, I'm not thinking about what movement look best next to the next movement - I'm actually thinking about what song and what sound sounds right next to the next thing. So kind of choreographing as if I'm always making a mix tape, so to speak.

When you say 'R&B,' people's minds automatically go in a place. How about I just say, 'Here's a tape; you can check it out on iTunes. You tell me.'

With songwriters like me who are prolific, you just write the song and then put it on tape.

A song can go a million different ways once you first get it down on tape.

I started performing at two or three on a tape recorder, one of those little flat recorders where you just push play and record.

I ain't never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

Imagine if Beethoven had a tape recorder. Then you'd know exactly what he meant. Maybe he meant 'Da da da da' instead of 'Boom boom boom boom!' Who knows?

I'd say writing songs is, for me, as much playing the tape recorder as it is playing guitar or writing words.

I never really composed guitar solos. Id usually ask to run the tapes and Id go off the top of my head to make something work.

All my writing takes place during the recording of the master tapes. I never do have songs when I start up an album. I actually write them while I record.

The tapes we were making would jump around with different styles, just quick parts of different songs. Hip-hop to jazz to funk to whatever else. And in a way, 'Check Your Head' ended up being like one of those pause-tapes.

I dug up my dad's old Fred Astaire tapes, and now I find him super-inspiring. He's, like, one of the best dancers.

I've had a couple tapes out and they weren't really tapes, it was just some songs that I had made, and then I would throw them together as a compilation and put a name on it. And then when I would release my next thing, I would just delete it.

I'm mostly a keep-to-myself kind of guy, but you slowly find yourself getting folded into the musical tapestry.

My head is full of shifting patterns and polyrhythmic stuff; but I want to use all acoustic instruments and create this kind of tapestry of interlocking lulling parts.

What happens is things come to you - director, script - and if you respond to it, it's because it's tapping into some part of what's inside you, and different roles tap into different parts.

I don't approach my movies with a target audience in mind. I try to make something that's true to the subject matter as much as possible, while still being entertaining and fun.

For 'Nier: Automata', I wasn't told to target anyone. I just made what I wanted to, and I tried to stay hidden from Square Enix as much as possible.

To be honest, I don't try to speak and target who my 'audience' is. I just do my thing.

You speak of Lord Byron and me; there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.