Alice Cooper Quotes

I love going into the studio with just an idea of the direction. Like, I want this tempo... I love to start from scratch, and the tracks sort of take on a life of their own.

I love all Yes music and love to play it live, but I'm most interested in making new music with Yes.

My songwriting and my style became more complex as I listened, learned, borrowed and stole and put my music together.

The reason we did 'Land of a Thousand Dances' and 'Gloria' on 'Horses' was because I liked repetitious, three-chord rock songs, but I didn't understand that I could write my own. I didn't realize that you could use those chords a million times.

I actually was consciously trying to emulate bands like Bruce Springsteen, and just trying to emulate what they do structurally.

My dream collaboration is with Lauryn Hill. Is that ever gonna' happen? Who knows! But there's still a lot I feel like musically I could do.

I think my music has always been a mixture, depending on whom I'm working with - what band, what musicians, what producer.

The way I like to start a new project is to take a cover song and make a stab at it, ideally one that has nothing to do with the people in the room.

I really just care about making music and how I can make it next.

I think, now that I've been writing songs in general, whether it's for the group or for me, I definitely feel like I got a little trigger happy, because it was so exciting to have production and create and put a lot in there.

We wrote the songs we wrote - we took from our own experiences, melded it together, and wrote what became 'Appetite For Destruction.'

I'm always working on multiple songs at a time.

I did alternative rock before. That's why my style is the way it is now.

When I did 'Hand Cannot Erase,' I didn't have a specific singer in mind.

For one, the whole concept of 'Live From Here' - writing a song every week - was like composition bootcamp.

I don't go into any album with pressing issues. I just try to write songs.

I think that certainly, whenever you have a new band, the first record always has a certain energy to it before you know what you're doing. I think some of the early Sonic Youth stuff was maybe like that.

I always want to make Strokes records and play Strokes shows.

I had been inspired by an organ player named Earl Grant, who played organ and piano together. My mom took me to see him. So I went home, put my piano and organ together, too.

Willow and I definitely talked about doing a collaboration. She really loves rock music, so she wants to come on and get crazy with me on a track. Which I would love, because she has a fantastic voice.

The Shins is, in a way, a recording project that turned into a live band. So I don't really keep myself beholden to any rules when I'm in the studio for Shins. I just gotta get it done as best I can.

It's the coolest part about writing music. I don't know how other people work, but so much is derived from some amalgamation of all these different songs that I love. That's why they jump all over the place.

Once I'd chosen the songs, it seemed like it would just be a question then of recording them. But it's a case of trying to re-invent the songs; taking them in different directions.

There was absolutely no intention of splitting up. We had so many great ideas to use on the new album. John Paul Jones was incredible, coming to the studio each day with new instruments to play.

It was actually my partner, Bernard Edwards, who helped me develop my sort of funky jazz style.