Mayer Hawthorne Quotes

Ultimately it's just music - whether I'm catering to the Bollywood audience or the indie audience. I just approach every type of music the way I am, and how my personality is.

When I perform, I like to immerse myself in the music, and I just try to get off on the diversity of music.

I am my own audience. I always picture me and my mates and think, 'What would we enjoy listening to?'

Black music has increased my enjoyment of what I do. It has increased my range, my ability to reach into myself and accept myself.

I listen to all types of music so I'm influenced by everything.

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

Studying music in a conservatory would be stifling for me, although I respect people who can do it. And by no means am I an expert at notating music or music theory - that's not really my world.

I'm really open to doing music. We just have to figure out what kind of music it's going to be - something where I don't feel compromised.

But the greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out. You want the listener to find the song on their own. If you give too much away, it takes away from the imagination.

I'm not trying to become a pop artist, and I'm not trying to make sure I stay a country artist. I'm just trying to make sure I make the best music I can, according to my way.

I make music, and if people like it, they like it, and some people won't.

Music is music; you don't have to put a label on it.

A good story gives you more of a license to be forward and progressive with the music.

I've had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life. I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you've really Joeled it up - there's some good periods of Joel; it's not all hot cheese. But I can't judge anyone else for their cheese. I've deep-sea dived in the Gouda.

You need the past as a guideline. The history of music is a good basis, but to escape that stuff, that tortuous rulebook, you have to learn it first. It's kind of like religion - once you've written the Bible, that's it, move on.

I love... different kinds of music. I like classical music and pop music. I like alternative, and I like rap, hip-hop, and I kind of collected all these things that I love, and they infused my sensibilities, and I just wanted to sing because it felt like it needed to come out of me.

I just want people that like my music to like me.

Music isn't only a profession.

I play piano and guitar and I do write my own stuff so to a certain extent I know what I want to do in regards to music. But I'm still finding out what kind of music is my favourite kind to listen to, never mind do myself so I've got a lot of time to find out myself and develop myself as an artist.

Pianists call me a composer, composers call me a pianist. The classicists think me a futurist, and the futurists call me a reactionary.

Creating any type of art is all about mood. I've been making extreme music in one fashion or another for decades. And truthfully, Down has a big enough fan base to where I could remain content to do only that, but music is a vast territory and I am an explorer. And I'm a lover of all things considered extreme in music.

I've realized that I love all forms of music and get excited when any artist goes crazy and creates something that is an experience.

I didn't try to think what my audience wanted and then make the music accordingly. I made the music and hoped that as many people liked it as possible.

My world is much bigger than music, and that's why I always fight the 'rock' label.

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.