Agnes Obel Quotes

I don't always have to be on what is the newest in music is. I'm slowly educating myself in music. For me, I feel more free in not knowing everything in what I'm doing. You can start making up too many rules for yourself. It should just be love and fun and feeling good.

I feel like I'm musically free to do what I want.

I think it's like music for the sake of music, and a lot of the words stem from liking music a lot, wanting to be a good band and having a good sense of humour, and living in a situation where we're free to pretty much do what we want.

I think you have to keep a childlike quality to play music or make a record.

My music is like my freedom space.

With human beings it could be argued that all music-making is, in essence, grounded in improvisation.

To me, music has to be about freedom. It's the most important thing in my life.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

I was in the studio so much, it was about the search for air in a metaphoric sense, and the breathing has more to do with travel for me, about the search musically for open air.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

To me, that's what music entails. It's freedom, it's having the undeniable confidence to express yourself in a way that you know is right.

I think that you have to bear in mind that music is about escape, and it's not unreasonable to think the music business would be based around escapism.

The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

I still picture myself as a student of the music. I'm always trying to learn new things. Music is just what makes me tick.

Music shouldn't be a chore or feel like any kind of burden.

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

You are the music while the music lasts.

I got tired of playing other people's songs.

Learning how to improvise really awakened my interest in music.

I'm by no means a pianist. I think that's safe to say, but the piano, for me, I would say it's the enabler. It gave me what I needed and gives me what I need in order to write a song. And I think playing or improvising on the piano is where I feel most liberated and sort of less conscious of all my insecurities or inadequacies.

The cool thing about music is no one can take music away from you, writing wise.

Any talk of 'craft' makes me laugh. My music looks outward; it does not gaze upon itself in admiration. Artisanal is for cheesemakers. I don't know anything about music theory. Every time I approach my guitar, it's like the first time. There's no craft in that.

In Atlanta, there's no limitation to where you can take your music. You can be as creative as you want to be.

At some point I was hanging around with the Butchies - a band I ended up playing with a lot - and it just brought out this thing in me... and it felt very different from the Indigo Girls.