Alex Kapranos Quotes

I never really thought about my music being universal. When I set out to write, it was just a feeling that felt good to me. I never thought about being able to reach everybody.

I write songs that mean something to me because I want to connect with people and make them feel something too.

Michael Jackson did something that no one else in history has managed - he connected with people on every level imaginable, all over the world. He seemed to speak to people at their very core and achieved the impossible. He reached people on a deep emotional level. And that is what any great artist or showman dreams of doing. That is why Michael Jackson was so special to me.

I think that the best part of music is when it comes from a real place and has an ability to kind of connect on a much larger scale. It no longer is a personal thing, it becomes everyone else's thing as well.

Music is still above all else the thing that does it for me.

A musician has to find a way to make his music mean something special - spiritually or however you can.

It doesn't matter what age you are, an effective song will move you.

Pop music has greater power to change people and to affect people because it's a universal language. You don't have to understand music to understand the power of a pop song.

I'm just trying to make my favorite music. That's how I work; I just do things based on the way they feel to me. I want to be touched by the music I'm making. Luckily, other people have shared that response to my work over the years.

Music is about communication... it isn't just something that maybe physically sounds good or orally sounds interesting; it's something far, far deeper than that.

'Hatful of Hollow' and 'The Smiths' were lent to me, and they made me want to create music that might make another person feel like they made me feel - to have an effect on someone.

Music has influenced my life and is one of the most treasured things for me. It speaks a universal language and for me, it is extremely important to stay connected to it.

My song titles are always left-field or mean a lot to me.

Through music, I think we can inspire each other.

I get to travel the world doing what I love to do - making other people happy... They might not even understand my words, but the one thing everybody understands is music.

Songs have been my greatest teachers and continue to be really important in my life.

I've had tons of incredible conversations with people who say they got married or buried relatives to my songs.

With good music, yes, we can bring people together because a good song will touch your soul no matter what and where it is coming from.

It reset and mended my freshly damaged and distorted view of life, and made me recognize that this thing we call music, this primal expression that we reshape and refine and define ourselves with, is the gift I was given. The ability to communicate what others feel but cannot fully express, the passing down and around of songs and stories, from Pete Townshend to Joey Ramone to me, to the audiences who take the time and effort to support our work and give us a way to support ourselves -- I'm thinking this is what I am supposed to be doing.

I'm inspired by many artists whose language I don't understand.

Music is something that's so powerful and means so much to me.

I remember watching an Iranian film, 'A Separation.' When the film ended, I felt like going to Iran, getting that family together, hug them and just being with them.

If the songs I'm writing can offer anything to somebody, I'd like to give myself the opportunity to deliver that.

'Once' constantly surprises me. I think it's the power of the music and the storytelling that people connect with.

Most of the songs I've written have painted a picture on how I have evolved, what I see in people, what inspires me.