Quotes About Artistry

You always try different versions of yourself through songwriting. It can get a bit annoying to see them walk around and do their thing when you feel like, 'I'm not that person any more.'

I love hearing old Bob Marley recordings that he did before he made the versions everybody knows.

I go online, and I love watching heavy metal bands and guitar players play heavy metal versions of the 'Zelda' theme, and people do all the 'Zelda' music, which is one of my favorite soundtracks.

When all my friends were into punk, I'd be singing versions of soul ballads. I thought, 'Oh my God, I don't want them to know I'm doing this.' But I really enjoyed singing those songs.

A lot of times, that's hard to capture: what you sound like in person versus what you sound like on record. If I had total control, I would do a lot of the old songs - not only my songs but Sam Cooke songs, Luther Vandross, melody songs. That's what I would really do if I had an opportunity to do a record.

I'm always looking to rock out. But it isn't really about rocking out versus being mellow, in terms of your personal satisfaction. In the end, you just want to be good. When you look at something that's really good, it might be Iggy Pop or it might be Leonard Cohen. Whatever it is, you want it to be really good.

I never think about rhythm versus melody; I've always just played to what's in my head.

I'm just excited that I get to put out the music I love versus music just for the sake of it.

Sometimes it's like that. I go, 'You know what? I'm going to just change scales. I'm going to even change instruments. And I'm going to go into the chromatics of the Spanish language,' and I do. You know, the poem is totally different. It's like a lunar voice versus a day voice, a solar voice.

Putting out music as it's made, versus holding it until an album's finished, allows me to be more timely and maintain balance.

As far as the U.K. goes, The 1975 is one of my favourite groups in a very long time. I love the sonics. I love everything they do.

Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don't know what happens up there in the mountains when you're growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time - 50 years I'd say.

I love to be a vessel through which characters can come through. And if I can move an audience with my work, then I've done my job.

Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent.

If you're an open channel when you're onstage, if you're just a vessel, things are going to come out that are stored away deep in your DNA.

My father was a taxidermist, not a run-of-the-mill profession for a West Indian immigrant. Having given up on becoming a vet, he settled for working with dead animals rather than live ones. Dad was a true craftsman, an artist.

Besides a princess and a ballerina and a firefighter and a vet, I think I wanted to be an artist.

Neil Gaiman swooped into my life though another friend, Jason Webley, who knew we were fans of each other's work and introduced us via email. Neil and I, like me and Ben, just hit it off instantly.

I don't think technology is viable unless the person applying it has something to say.

I really like Billie Eilish's music. It's really different. My music ain't like hers but I like her music, her vibe.

I really loved the hardcore alternative vibe Prince had on 'Dirty Mind.'

SAD!' is definitely one of my go-to songs when I want to vibe.

All of my records have their own vibe, depending on what was going on in my life.

Maybe in the future, you'll be able to understand what I'm saying. I'm going more for an atmospheric vibe in my songs. And I really don't want to ruin the illusions people may create for themselves.