Quotes About Performance

I live for playing live. All my records are live, since After the Gold Rush, with the exception of Trans and the vocals on Landing on Water.

It's fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There's something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals.

Before getting on 'The Voice,' I was very critical and judgmental of people's vocals. After getting on the show, I was so nervous, I realized my low notes were gone, so nerves do take a big toll on your voice.

I treat my vocals as an instrument.

For a young band about to make a record, make sure you get the vocals right.

I'm making a record that's half stripped down acoustic which is the way I perform a lot and half of it is very produced. It's really hard to keep music simple but I was trying to keep it simple and focus on one or two instruments and vocals.

It's a particular skill, I think, doing backing vocals. You're blending the vocals between the gaps, between the music.

I played guitar and bass. I didn't do much vocals, although I did have one band where I was the lead singer. But that was when I was in college.

On 'Idol,' I understood that everyone wanted to hear my vocals, so I stuck with the ballads.

Recording vocals has the same kind of physical demands as you experience a lot in theater work.

My son is in a band, and he's a singer, and his vocals... they're screaming-growling stuff... and he's got a pretty reasonable voice. Yet he practices really hard to get the screaming-growling thing without losing that voice every five minutes. So I'm, like, 'Hats off to you.'

But when I record my next studio album, of course I'll do the lead vocals.

There are a lot of people using technology that are playing to a click with backing vocals already stuck in there on some computerized thing that runs along in time to the show so they have these amazing vocals that are only partly the guys on stage producing them at the time.

We were gradually playing larger venues and in the early days PA systems were kind of non-existent. So to play loud, we had to use louder equipment. The PA systems back then didn't mic the instruments - only the vocals.

If I'm playing with Ozzy it's just a guitar thing. But with the vocals I feel like I'm studying for the SATs.

It's just a lot of fun to be able to see your ideas come into fruition. And to see people translate the things that come out of my mind vocally. And to be able to produce vocals and give people my point of view musically. And to be able to sit in the crowd and see people sing the song that I wrote, it's an amazing feeling.

I don't think it's important to be that good at singing. I think people who are good at singing sing backing vocals for pop stars. It's about how you project. I wouldn't consider myself to be a singer.

To me, dance is so ethereal and elusive, so much of an illusion. After a performance, that's it. With vocals and music, you have good recordings.

You get some confidence in your songwriting abilities and go for the essentials - guitar, bass, drums, vocals. Those are the basic band essentials that have to be in place before you go any further.

I think that I've gotten a lot more relaxed, and I know how to go about getting a sound now. I know what to do to get the vibe right. As an example, when I'm doing vocals, I don't have six guys sitting out there in the control room, messing around, making faces.

We have grafted, we write our own music, we are great performers - we put our life and soul into it. So when people say, 'Why are they wearing that?' you just want to say, 'Did you hear the vocals? Did you see the performance? Did you see how much went into it?'

I want to be able to show my vocals off and when I do do live performances, I'm going to do some acoustics just with a guitar and a stripped back version.

A rock band with vocals is what I always wanted to be a part of; in fact, it feels very natural for me.

I don't even like to sing in front of my own band members so it's easier for me if they send me the music and I record my vocals in my own studio.