Shura Quotes

Every time you come out with an album or a song, you want to feel like you're growing a bit in what you are and giving people something that they can feel.

I have a pretty healthy perspective on what my past music was.

'99.9%' is the end product of years and years of me going through multiple styles and interests.

You take something from your past that you're somewhat ashamed about and you write about it from another character's point of view.

I think the musical evolution I've gone through has come from all the work with the material.

Regardless of any experiences in the past, for me it really is important to be engrossed in as much of the creative process as I possibly can. I was surprised with how much the eight years I spent on 'Castle' actually serviced that. I ended up, in a way, having a free education on that show.

With 'Words, Words, Words,' that show was me experimenting with something, and then there was a clear direction for me.

I've definitely grown and evolved as a person, as an artist, you know. Just in terms of my style, my taste, my influences, everything... That's a part of being an artist I think.

I still feel like that 17-year-old-kid that fell in love with country music, but I also am allowed to write songs about being a man, too, which I think is the coolest place I've ever been in my life.

I tried playing for the public, and I selected music that I thought would be pleasing to them. Times are different now. Today, I play the music I want, and I just try to do my best.

When I made my first film, it was just an adventure. But after my first movie, I guess I got more of a feeling of what was happening around me.

When you share something about your adolescence, it's a way to roll over and show your soft underbelly when it comes to talking about your past and the person that you once were.

'Tongue' is literally just one piece of the puzzle. This album is something I've worked on over the course of my entire career and something I've been discovering myself in it.

That little window like 2004 through like 2010 was probably the most, like most inspiring time of my creative life, for sure.

The reason why everything I do is so different is not because I'm trying to be provocative; it's simply a reflection of whatever was happening to me at the time I wrote that particular record.

There's always those few people that are like, 'Why don't you play any of the material off your first two records?' And I'm like, 'For the same reason that I don't play with G.I. Joe dolls anymore.' It's like, 'I'm a grown-up.' I wrote that music when I was a kid.

Over the years, I grew up as a person and made mistakes and had a great time and had a baby, kind of grew as a person and as an artist.

That's the most important thing for me is just figuring out how and if I'm growing as an artist.

As soon as I went to painting school in New York, I took an experimental film course, and everything clicked and came together. I realized my love of music and drama and the visual arts all came together. This happened in 1989. Since then, it's been a long road of educating myself in every possible way.

A lot of the songs that I wrote during 'Pt. 1' and 'Pt. 2' are the first songs that I ever wrote that sounded like that. I was in this phase - a certain creative space in my life - personally and musically.

I always grow, every album.

I think that identity and sort of the brand - I hate that word - the brand of the musician should be malleable. It should change, and it should grow.

El Paso is where I started. I don't feel like I'd be making the music I'm making now if I hadn't gone there.

Mostly, I just write about feelings that people can relate to. Because, yeah, I don't know who I am, and this is not my sound forever... I'm a human, so hopefully, I will always develop.

When you're young and starting out, a lot of artists think they know exactly who they are. There are others who come out in someone else's skin. They learn to take it off bit-by-bit and work out the core of what they're trying to say.