Neil Peart Quotes

Arranging is the way I put my stamp on my music as much as my guitar playing.

I could draw up a list of about 30 artists who I apparently sound like. From Lady Gaga, to Katy Perry to Lana Del Rey. I don't know if it's because I'm versatile or because production affects how people judge music. I can't wait for a time I can just be classed as myself.

If you have music that sounds like what you cover, people won't be able to differentiate who you are.

I love the pioneers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but when I write music, it comes out in my own way.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

My voice makes the genre because I sound like me on all my songs - I've made my own genre: Jorja Smith.

Genesis means the beginning. But I put the A instead of the E because I didn't wanna be criticized in church and nothing like that. And it means the beginning, but in my city, I'm the only person that's on the West Coast that has a different sound, so I was thinking to myself, 'This the beginning of a new sound, a new person.'

I made that a point when I was creating my sound from the beginning, I didn't want to sound like anybody. Once I kind of found my own sound, I mastered it.

The phrase 'teen hottie' literally makes me want to throw up. I'm a pop princess at heart. Pop is about distilling what you want to say and making it easy. And the way I write isn't about making things easy. It's a weird juxtaposition.

I've always sort of felt like what the Shins is, I guess, is a vehicle for my writing.

When you hear me, you know it's me, regardless of the song.

You know, people always ask me how I describe my music. First of all I tell them that's their job and then that also one day I hope to have things referred to as Martha Wainwright -esque.

U2 is an original species... there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.

I think a lot of singer-songwriters get compared to each other, but I'd like to think that what I'm doing is special and specific to me.

I know what my sound is. I'm just trying to get it out there how I can explain it. I'm not trying to write or put out some music that doesn't represent me.

I'm playing with music and working on different types of music. But I've realised that I can't really stray from what is my marker.

Fortunately, as we all know, it's impossible for anybody but Jimmy Smith to really sound like Jimmy Smith.

No matter what I do, my songs come out in a certain style, and if that sounds like Dead Kennedys, then there's probably a reason for it. Don't forget, I wrote most of those songs, music and lyrics.

I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

I don't like the idea of a singer-songwriter record. I don't picture myself that way, and it's not my favorite sort of look, I guess. It's really just an aesthetic thing.

I felt Michael Jackson was inspired a little bit more from the elegance of a Fred Astaire. Michael loved Sammy Davis, Jr. and James Brown and Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. But he wasn't any of those people. To be inspired is one thing, but he made it all his own.

I think Westlife is very unique: we have a certain sound; we do our thing our way, and we don't try to change too much. I think that's what the fans love about us. We keep giving the fans what they want every year. The style of music never really changes too much.

I may play the same songs night to night, but I never play them the same way.

Even though other people wrote my songs I put my stamp on them. I have a connection, but there is no truer connection than an artists and their own song.

I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.