John Darnielle Quotes

I got hooked into folk music by accident, because that's what white college kids liked when I was a child.

Music, Rock and Roll music especially, is such a generational thing. Each generation must have their own music, I had my own in my generation, you have yours, everyone I know has their own generation.

Back then, as a kid, you made a choice of who you liked, and it was either us or 'Take That.' And if you liked 'East 17', it showed you knew what was going on, you were clued up, had better taste in music.

I think if you play music and you join a scene you're already too late.

When I was young, people were almost identified solely by the kind of music they liked. People fell into categories of who liked what.

When Phil and I started out, everyone hated rock n' roll. The record companies didn't like it at all - felt it was an unnecessary evil. And the press: interviewers were always older than us, and they let you know they didn't like your music, they were just doing the interview because it was their job.

If we play to first time Blink 182 listeners, it's good they are listening to us and not the Backstreet Boys. Old Fans or new fans, it's all the same to us.

I do listen to some music, but I don't technically have one band I'm absolutely hooked on.

I will always love the Clash, because I loved them so much when I was fourteen, and I love how you can start a conversation with almost literally any dude about the Clash.

Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.

When I was 20, political music was the uncoolest thing on earth.

I grew up on Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield. I remember lying about it; it wasn't cool to listen to country when I was 12.

Dance music is Madonna's base. It's what she likes, it's what she listens to. It's not anything other than that. She doesn't read what's on the charts. And if it's on time, great. This is who she is.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, 'What kind of music do you make?', and you say, 'Pop music.' You may as well have 'I'm not cool' stamped on your forehead.

Guys would hang out in groups just to be with the music.

I think I skipped a lot of music, like when I was 17 or 18. I didn't know about a lot of new bands because I was so immersed in older music.

I get a thrill meeting kids who are into alternative music.

I think that pop, and to some extent rock, are like sport and fashion industry in that they're about the exuberance of youth. That's the sort of subliminal ideology.

I was an MTV guy back in the day.

So many people I know are like, 'Nobody listens to Mumford and Sons anymore.' But you know what? I love Mumford and Sons. And I will listen to those albums, and I love 'em.

Everybody else was quoting 2Pac, and I was running around with Green Day in my Walkman. Racially speaking, I wasn't cool or appropriate for any group.

The kind of songs I sing have been existing in Bollywood music since a long time. In fact, the reason my music is so popular amongst the millions of youth is because I sing in their own language, in their own slang, and about their lives.

Rock is young music, it is youth oriented. It just speaks for a generation.

When I was growing up listening to music, it was 2004, when The Starting Line and Finch and The Used were kind of my favorite bands.

I used to dress like Roger Taylor when I was ten because I thought he was cool. In high school, I used to dress like Stephen Perkins from Jane's Addiction because I thought he was cool. You just want to be those guys when you're that age.