Les Claypool Quotes

I've always tried to stay clear of being labeled, putting a label on what type of music that I make.

I have a very difficult time describing my music.

The most important thing is that you honor that musical integrity, whether you make music that sounds like ABBA or you make music that sounds like Void.

I never thought of myself as being the singer that wanted to create an identity and then stick to that.

Country is and always will be my heart, but I don't have a problem with it spilling over into pop if it wants to.

I'm playing with music and working on different types of music. But I've realised that I can't really stray from what is my marker.

Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference.

I really love music that's on the periphery of not fitting into a clear genre. I felt like I was constantly being described as something I didn't really feel like I identified with.

Taxi drivers used to ask me what kind of music I did, and I'd say, 'Well, it's kind of jazz, soul, classical' - but that makes no sense to anyone.

A name doesn't make the music. It's just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.

I hate labels; the problem is that if you say you're one thing, it's hard for people to imagine you as something else. Music is way more complicated than that.

I am consciously not trying to bring in World Music elements. The ways that I work and feel are completely different in how they sound than someone playing the Kora in Africa would play it.

Just the type of music that was around at the same time as I was writing. Some of it was wicked, definitely. But there was just one direction which I thought could be pushed that no one was pushing.

I was trying to establish an identity in music, and black and white had nothing to do with it.

People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play.

We are just fans of music, we are not fans of a specific kind of music. We just happen to be a rock band. Until we explain ourselves, sometimes people don't understand why we limit ourselves to just being a rock band. It's because that is what we like doing.

I don't think I have a genre at all.

When you say, 'Man, what kind of music does Outkast make?' You be like, 'They make Outkast music.' What kind of music does N.E.R.D. make? They make N.E.R.D. music. I want to be one of those people, because there's so many layers to the music I create that I don't want people to expect me to do one thing.

I listen to all kinds of music and sometimes I try to do something that's referential to an era or a genre, but it still sounds like me.

I'm totally open to exploring different types of music. I just have to always remember to be true to who I am.

I've got so many musical personalities, I could probably get treatment for it.

If music leaves any impression at all, it does so without regard to stylistic issues.

I've never really gotten into the whole labels thing. There were times I would cover a pop song, and people would say 'You sound really country.' I gave up on that whole thing a long time ago.

In the early '70s, I started to feel like Philadelphia soul was the black-sheep brother of rock and roll. I decided to try to get away from it.

Aaron Copland was a man that had a very specific point of view about what music should be which was that, he felt that new music should have the composer should show a personality in his music.