Phil Elverum Quotes

A lot of times, a bunch of songs have to be written to get to the next really good one.

In the end, our way of writing music is a long process of experimentation. We enjoy the luxury of taking this very seriously and giving it the time that it needs.

Since age seven, I've been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

I needed to explore my talent and versatility and see if I had another side to me, another sound.

Well mostly in song writing my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes.

My best efforts were some modern things that looked like very lousy Matisses. Thank God I had the sense to realize they were lousy, and leave Paris.

Designers and musicians are primed to keep thinking forward. Once an album or collection launches, you can only think about doing the next one.

No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness.

You have got to make new music, that is the way that I look at it anyway.

I feel like every artist has an opportunity to create something new and to challenge themselves to reach out to a new crowd.

I think a composer is always interested in his last work.

The combination of experience and experimentation will ultimately yield a personal sound.

I feel like my music has become a lot of things. It's hard to label the evolution, but I like there to be an evolution. I just like to paint with all different kinds of colors.

As an artist, you find at different times you want to do different things.

I really just care about making music and how I can make it next.

I want to bring art into everything.

As an artist, I want to explore as much as I can.

I love design; to create stuff from ground zero is the best for me. I'm always so intense when I talk about that.

I thought I would be a visual artist when I was growing up, so I'm always up for a bit of experimentation.

Being a rock and roll band is about spending time on the details so that you can hone your own identity.

We're all inspired by what has come before us, but hope to use the inspiration to create our own. That's the artist's journey. It's a pretty amazing path.

I made all sorts of things: drawings, sculptures - I was doing origami before I even knew the word. I was constantly creating.

All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!

I was interested in cross-pollinating the two. I thought there was something lovely in the little vignette forms. I wanted to explore that.

A composer is not only an architect but also an inventor, and he should not build houses in which he cannot live.