Rotimi Quotes

I don't think of my music in terms of a career. I just want to get it out there and do it. I'm not manipulating my sound to be like anybody or trying to write to sound like anybody else.

If we all could sound like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones.

I'm making music the way I would have done before modern equipment and music recording.

Any band that is out there chasing it is doing more destruction to music then someone who is out there playing what they truly feel.

Music's supposed to come from the heart. I felt like that if it ever got mechanical, I was going to back away from it.

No matter how great we get with digital formats of instrumentation, nothing really quite duplicates the real thing.

I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.

If you write songs and if you write music that's very sincere and very honest, it's pop music, but it is pop music with a lot of honesty and a lot of heart.

All I can do is focus on staying true to the style of music I write and sing because that is the only way it's going to come off as honest.

That's what I like about Frank Ocean or Bon Iver - they try to capture a feeling in the most sincere way.

The films I grew up loving, and the art that I love, is not generally the kind of postmodern ironic winking stuff. What lasts is the stuff in which the artists are totally in league with the subject.

You have to write the story that's at the front of your head. There is no point in trying to write for the market; it won't ring true.

When you are real in your music, people know it and they feel your authenticity.

I need to let people know who I am and instead of just trying to make great records, just be honest and make it more personal and make it more passionate, to make records with emotion and not be afraid to express that.

I think if you're too concerned with being cool or hip or liked, you can't really make good TV because sincerity and coolness are opposites.

I like things that don't sound particularly processed or mechanical or made by machines. I like music that contains human elements, with all their flaws. There's air in it, and you can hear a room of a bunch of guys playing. Those are the magic parts.

I think the best music is honest music.

I've always made music from the heart, and that's what I do.

I hope that when people see my body of work, they will say, 'That brother dropped it for real on us, even at the expense of his own image.'

I feel like my mission is to be honest with myself. My mission is to share my truth - share, not give. I think that's what an artist is supposed to do: I think they share.

When you're an artist, you can't write with the intent of affecting anyone.

If it's not coming from your heart and if you don't believe it, then more than likely you're not going to be able to bring yourself to performances that justify playing.

A lot of what I listened to growing up was blues, but also folk and indie music. So there's this marriage of songs that structurally are quite bluesy. Sound-wise, there's a lot of indie as well. But you can't really say I'm pop-blues, because that's insulting to blues. It just can't exist.

Your fundamental responsibility is to stay true to the deepest nature and intention of the materials.

I'm a student of Eric Church, and I say that a lot... I was drawn to it because of the honesty and because it's got rough edges on it. He doesn't shy away from anything, and that's the way I wanted to be.