Lee Ranaldo Quotes

To keep creating something with this type of music, you have to take it out of the box.

But it can be hard to experiment when you're in a band.

Joining Modest Mouse was just consistent with what I used to do as a teenager: I followed where I thought I would make some interesting music.

The lyrics came out of necessity. When we started writing the record, we started in a more fusion environment and that got boring really quick and that wasn't what we were about on an organic level.

The music that I've made in the past has had strong contemporary country roots, but I think moving on in music, I will branch out from that a bit.

I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way - I said, 'I think it's time for me to have some fun.'

Music should always be an adventure.

I always feel like out of every session that I do, whether it's a record session or even a concert, I like to think that there was something in there that I didn't do before. That's my goal.

But that's something that I like about scoring film: it makes me reach out of the parameters of my self, it requires me to do things musically that I wouldn't normally do left to my own devices.

The danger in playing a piece over and over again lies in getting stuck in a rut where you don't ask questions anymore and you always play it the same way.

Every album that I've attempted, I suppose, has been different - it's bound to be.

The goal of serious musicians is to play outside of yourself. That's most likely with people who suggest things that are outside your musical experience.

I'm always ready to be challenged. Like, 'Wings: Outro,' it was hip-house. That was the first time I'd ever listened to that genre... but I liked it.

I wanted to try a different way of making music. That's what made me try different things with my voice.

I've never been one to just play safe music and think that's all there is to it.

I'm always going to be experimenting musically, trying new things.

We wanted to be like Radiohead. When they started experimenting with electronic music, it gave us the idea that it might be a cool idea to do.

When we did 'Eliminator,' at the time, it was experimental for us. It obviously turned out real successful, but at the time, we caught crap about it from some of our old fans. They thought we were deserting our roots or our old style or whatever.

I don't want people to expect the hard tracks to continue my whole career. When I started making music, I wasn't making music like that.

We always want to do covers, but we found it kind of boring to do covers of bands in our genre, and we were always asked to do those.

I'm constantly evolving as a musician.

What happened with reggaeton is that many artists kept recycling the same sound. But there are a lot of reggaeton artists that are still in their prime - like Daddy Yankee - because they've chosen to continue growing, to offer people more than just reggaeton. That's where I learned to always be able to try something new and not be afraid.

Sometimes it's very hard for other New Orleans musicians to break out. It starts with the musician. They have to be willing to take a risk. Playing in the city, you can get comfortable. You think things are going well, but you're always in the city.

The best way for me to teach myself an instrument is to just jam on it, and sound awful sometimes, and sound great other times.

We're not complete prodigies musically and as a band together it takes more and more work to find something new and special.