Miyavi Quotes

Lyrically we tried to just not be the same as a lot of the other crap that is out there right now.

Sometimes, there's a preconceived notion of how a scene or how a work should be delivered. And I see young performers sometimes try and deliver that, and it's not really true to their voice or who they are.

I try to make my music interesting to me first, then hopefully other people will find it interesting, too.

I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.

I can only be me. I have a hard time being a chameleon as a singer.

Just trying to be different - when I hear something - I don't like to go trampling on other people's sounds.

You're always going to sound like yourself, but you can make really strong attempts to keep some similarities, but move away from what you did before for popularity's sake.

What is nice about country music today is that most artists are not trying to do something everybody else is doing. They really are trying to develop their own uniqueness.

In my short career, I tend not to repeat myself. I have no interest in redoing something. Sometimes that makes people angry, and maybe it's not the best thing for me commercially. But it's the best thing for me artistically, and it's the best thing for my heart.

I wouldn't start writing songs like 'Name' all the time just because I thought that's what people wanted to hear. I'll write a song in the same vein because it's what I want to write.

That's what hip-hop is - it's about meeting the music where you are, and then you add on top of that. It's about coming at it with your full self.

My goal is to not fit in. My worst nightmare is being the baby version of another artist.

That the best piece of art a person is capable of making is the one that only they could create.

As an artist, I try not to sound the same as others. Or even as myself.

I'm still trying to keep it original, staying true to my sound.

In my music, I'm never going to force anything to try to recreate a moment or something.

There are artists in Belgium who try to imitate American artists. But it's like, if you're Belgian pretending to be American, you won't be better than the American because you aren't American. You have to do your own stuff.

I sang a song in Hindi; nobody even knew what that was. Singing about Native American issues, nobody did that... I had no reason to want to copy anybody else... All I had was my originality.

Don't try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out.

Bernard Shaw said that when you copy yourself, you know you've got style. And I feel that if you can write like you write, then you are true to yourself. And it's not an easy thing to do - it's a disgustingly difficult thing to do.

All I try to do is to write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it.

The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.

The amazing thing now is that most of those so-called critics who were telling me to find my own voice seem to have lost theirs.

You have to be who you are when you do music.