Les Claypool Quotes

It's one thing to sit at home and write a piece with your guitar, and quite another to have it performed by four people. For me, it's always trial and error.

He wanted to play accordion on something of mine and I said you can play accordion, but I want you to play piano and organ on some stuff. He came over a couple times a week for two weeks and gave me therapy as to whether I should do The Thorns or not.

I wouldn't go into the studio if I didn't have a band who's ready, willing, and able.

If you want me to work with you, then come with an idea. Come with music.

As a songwriter, I've always loved to tell stories. But in my band, it was always about what would make sense for a band to put out.

I don't play any instruments. I don't produce. I don't know which keys or chords I am using, so, in essence, I need the band and the production team - otherwise, I am just some guy with a hat and a song.

With Sleater-Kinney, we did a lot of improvisation in our live shows, and even our process of songwriting involved bringing in disparate parts and putting them together to form something cohesive.

I know melody. I know rhythm; I know bass guitar; I know the piano. I know everything about music that helps build the music that go along with creating the whole art form, you know what I'm saying?

The Band is sounding real good. We've been doing some dates together and they've been going well.

Plus, we spend most of our time writing music. Most of the time is spent in the studio in my house.

You can't play a symphony alone, it takes an orchestra to play it.

All Montreal bands have around nine members, I believe.

There's not a lot of thinking that I need to do away from the studio on Broken Bells stuff.

I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording.

It's really only all about music. It's not like a big rocket scientist kind of philosophy or anything.

By the end of it, you never know how it's going to turn out. Hopefully if I pick the right songs and put the right melodies on it and all the collaboration works out. it's a win-win situation.

We play some of my stuff and we play some Beatle covers.

We spent a month in LA using a pool of musicians, a string arranger called Benjamin Wright, some great backing singers, and it gave tracks like Dynamite, which was written there, that kind of flavour.

New Year's Eve, we're going to be doing a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Symphony Hall. It makes me feel good, because of all the people they could have had, they wanted me! We do have to do a little work with the rhythm section.

I really like the thing I did with Martina McBride. I had that song sitting around for a long time.

There is no substitute for jamming and getting to know each other on the road.

I've become more interested in creating a band sound than trying to outshine the other guys.

When you have four guys in a room writing songs, it different. It's great - that's what makes a band a band. Audioslave was great.

When we were in the studio working stuff out, and even when we were on stage, the music was a priority.

The way that I write is I just write a ton of music in the background of my life, and then I just bring it into rehearsal. It's, like, 'Okay, guys. It goes like this. Let's smooth it out.'