Jamie xx Quotes

At a festival, a lot of people came to see other artists, so you have to put on a signature set and performance: 'This is what I do, this is why I'm here.' At solo gigs, I'm a DJ - I'll play two-and-a-half hours, and not just my own music, also my favorite songs by other artists.

I never got nervous performing my own material.

I have more than one side of me that likes to get out on a stage and sing.

If I was going onstage, of course I would talk about it. How could I not?

I've never, ever in my life enjoyed playing live the way I am now.

I don't think that just because you go on stage you are an exhibitionist.

It's weird because standup can be like therapy. Comedians can't be satisfied with just having fun with our friends. We've got to figure out a way to do it on stage.

When I'm DJing for two hours, I might play two or three Smiths songs.

I'm very proud of my records, but my most natural creative tendencies have been in live performing. There's a beautiful element to recording and making records, but I've always felt a little shy with it.

I'm like a big 10-year-old when I'm on stage. I just go up there and do whatever I think is cool at the moment.

What is a good performance? It lies in the hands and head of a performer... the shortest way between two people is not a straight line.

The thing about theater that always and still kind of makes me edgy is that you work and work and work and work, and then you're just in performance mode, and then you have to just be on; the work is done, and then you just have to do it over and over again, so you're just constantly at that performance level.

I mean, you still can't jump offstage and go read a book. But I'm getting better at it. It is something you can manage. You can still give everything you have to the audience onstage, and have something for yourself.

I can read a crowd pretty well. I know what to play and know how to keep it interesting for them and for myself as well. Most of the other DJs are more like producers so they become famous because they make hits and then they start DJ-ing. But I'm more from the other way around.

Every time I get in front of an audience, I do the best I can. I really don't look at it like, you know, 'This is gonna be this crowd, or that crowd.' If anything, I think about the demographics only because of what songs will entertain more than others.

I have always had a need for attention but didn't plan to be a comic.

Even when I go do comedy stuff live, I can still feel the drummer in me about to go onstage.

I feel like so much of why I sort of want to work in television is so that people know to come see me live.

Anything that loosens you up and makes you freer is good, because that's what acting and performing is all about - being free. It gives you a better connection to the audience.

I think there's a, you know, certain kind of freedom for me when I get on stage. Maybe it's because I've held it back for so long that it's made me a little bit of angst inside. It's kind of like this energy needs to come out. And there's a certain sense, you know, of freedom when I get on that stage.

Most of the people I hang out with who sing love it, and they just want to do it until they die. I still look forward to the performances. And believe it or not, they're all kind of different. Even though you sing the same songs, and maybe you go to the same venues, it just feels completely different every time you go on stage.

I don't want to get on stage and just be another act.

To be an entertainer, you gotta be a little gutsy, a little egotistical, so you have to pull back sometimes when people say, 'Well, he's stuck-up.' 'Stuck-up' is only another word for self-conscious.

People who want to do stand-up from the start - I mean that's an extremely self-centred thing to want, isn't it?

The mind starts to do things that you didn't even realize it could do. I suppose it's the manipulation. I suppose it's the sense of power, the center of attention, and the me-ism. And performers have to have that.