BOB MOULD

You're surrounded by electronic music in New York. I mean New York is one of the few places in North America where electronic music is the prevalent form.

It reset and mended my freshly damaged and distorted view of life, and made me recognize that this thing we call music, this primal expression that we reshape and refine and define ourselves with, is the gift I was given. The ability to communicate what others feel but cannot fully express, the passing down and around of songs and stories, from Pete Townshend to Joey Ramone to me, to the audiences who take the time and effort to support our work and give us a way to support ourselves -- I'm thinking this is what I am supposed to be doing.

I'm 44 now; I feel better than I did when I was 34. I've got more clarity now. I wake up in the morning, and I write my blog, and then I go upstairs, and I work on music. And I do that every day. That's what I do. I don't check in once a week and think, "Oh, I've gotta come up with something now." I'm always writing. I was just in a coffee shop in Chelsea last night, just killing time, waiting for a friend, and I sat and wrote enough for three good songs. I love it. This is my life. It's all I do.

...Everything you hate is everything that you created.

How can you qualify the difference between a sin and a lie.

We all have those times in relationships, whether it's work or personal or family or whatever it is, where there's something that's eating at you and eating at you, and you want to say it to the person that you care about the most, but you're so afraid it's going to destroy everything. Like the fear of destruction keeps one from saying what they want to say - when, in actuality, by not saying it, things get worse. Because it's the entropy, the leak that doesn't get fixed.

You can realign people's physical chemistry with sound.

I have music in my head constantly. I have to have a soundtrack in my head.

Once you've said it, you can't put it back. So choose your words carefully in heated moments in personal relationships. Anything you say, people have feelings. If you're thinking something, you keep thinking it and it just sort of slides out, it's gonna happen.

In this world, I've got no choice: there is nothing left at all; and you don't notice, but that's all right: you don't know what it's like.

The blues is something separate from what I do. They connect at certain spots, but blues is different. I wouldn't put it in with what my career has been. That would be a whole separate wing.

I don't like the dislocation of being away for months at a time. It's not conducive to having a life.

How do I explain Neil Young? Great question! I explain Neil Young as, I would kill to see his acoustic shows.

When the business starts shaping the art, or the delivery of the art, then it's not right.

There's so many companies that are spending so much money on 17-year-olds... I can't compete with that. I'm not that guy anymore, they can't dress me up and roll me out there and make me look good. I am what I am!

When I'm winning, winning, winning with a certain way why would I mess with that? When I realised there was lot to be gained from failing in some people's eyes, it made it all the more interesting!

I think also there was a lot of coming to terms with where I am in life, where I fit in as a gay man in America, and getting more comfortable with who I am.

You're surrounded by electronic music in New York. I mean New York is one of the few places in North America where electronic music is the prevalent form.

We all have those times in relationships, whether it's work or personal or family or whatever it is, where there's something that's eating at you and eating at you, and you want to say it to the person that you care about the most, but you're so afraid it's going to destroy everything. Like the fear of destruction keeps one from saying what they want to say - when, in actuality, by not saying it, things get worse. Because it's the entropy, the leak that doesn't get fixed.

...Everything you hate is everything that you created.

How can you qualify the difference between a sin and a lie.

In this world, I've got no choice: there is nothing left at all; and you don't notice, but that's all right: you don't know what it's like.

You can realign people's physical chemistry with sound.

Once you've said it, you can't put it back. So choose your words carefully in heated moments in personal relationships. Anything you say, people have feelings. If you're thinking something, you keep thinking it and it just sort of slides out, it's gonna happen.

It reset and mended my freshly damaged and distorted view of life, and made me recognize that this thing we call music, this primal expression that we reshape and refine and define ourselves with, is the gift I was given. The ability to communicate what others feel but cannot fully express, the passing down and around of songs and stories, from Pete Townshend to Joey Ramone to me, to the audiences who take the time and effort to support our work and give us a way to support ourselves -- I'm thinking this is what I am supposed to be doing.

There's enough drama in my life whether I want it or not. There's enough going on right now to keep my head spinning all the time.

Business is business. You know how that works. Because stations run on ad money. If they're playing a gay artist, then ad money dries up. So they have to be careful.

I'm 44 now; I feel better than I did when I was 34. I've got more clarity now. I wake up in the morning, and I write my blog, and then I go upstairs, and I work on music. And I do that every day. That's what I do. I don't check in once a week and think, "Oh, I've gotta come up with something now." I'm always writing. I was just in a coffee shop in Chelsea last night, just killing time, waiting for a friend, and I sat and wrote enough for three good songs. I love it. This is my life. It's all I do.

I have music in my head constantly. I have to have a soundtrack in my head.

There are a lot of people, especially the younger generation who don't feel that they need to support the artists by buying their music because they grew up learning that record companies are evil.