Quotes About Artistry

When I write a song, I get the melody right first, and then hopefully I can back it up with a lyric that has to respect the melody.

I don't like pre-written raps; I think it makes the song better if you listen to the beat first. In a sense, you have to make a marriage with the beat. I ride the beat, hear the flow of the drums, get the melody of my flow, and then from that point, it's a process of what I want to say.

I record into my phone as soon as I hear a track. Melody comes first for me, and then my gibberish usually forms into lyrics and a concept from there.

I love to explore melody.

I always find that, when it comes to writing songs, if the melody and the chords are working, we're 90 per cent there.

I've wanted to do a Christmas song for years but thought every lyric and melody had been written.

I find it really easy to write on the bass, because you kind of get straight to the point: you do lyrics and melody without thinking about decorating the song until after you've finished it.

I got really sick of playing just, like, 'Bop-bop-bop-bada-bop-bop-bada-rapa-pah.' Just playing that 190-beats-per-minute punk-rock songs, I didn't feel it anymore. And I always loved melody - when you looked back on those early records, there's always a hook buried in there somewhere.

Composing a melody or a western song is easier than composing a commercial number.

Within Klaxons, I never wrote the lyrics. I always wrote the melody and music with the other guys.

Roger Ballen is pretty much a member of Die Antwoord, it would be safe to say.

I was always making memes, and now I have music.

The most memorable moment was playing drums with Bob Dylan.

Great actors are people who just meld into the part without calling attention to the fact that they are so-and-so doing this part. They may never become huge stars, but will always, in memory, stay respected actors.

I like to be around dancers who are totally committed to the art form, totally committed to the men and women around them.

An artist must create. If she doesn't, she will become a menace to society.

It's a mental fake-out to myself. I make believe I'm making a new show so I forget the material I was working on and make up some fresh material.

I like Aimee Mann. Her album 'Mental Illness' is so good.

What Joanna and Solange and Kanye all had in common was a mental image of what the sound is supposed to be. As a collaborator, my goal has to be to help them get toward that mental image. That was cool.

All the things we have to remember, and I've mentioned this before, is that we're all artists.

Freddie Mercury said years later that he got the idea for 'We Will Rock You' from 'Bits and Pieces.' I never knew that.

I'd never compare myself to Freddie Mercury because I look up to him far too much. As an artist, not necessarily as a person.

Freddie Mercury wrote songs that were real and true.

You can't beat Freddie Mercury. He was a mad man in the best sense possible.