Cass McCombs Quotes

I'm in the studio for hours in that tiny little box, and really, the performing part is what I'm most excited about.

I love collaborating because I come from the world of being in bands.

I write songs, but the guys play on them, they have opinions on them, and we tour together and spend all our time together.

I generally prefer to come in to the studio with a fully written song and then work on the arrangement with the band. Sometimes even the arrangements are pretty much already worked out in my head, but other times we experiment.

When I go in the studio with Post, I have a really good idea of what he's going to gravitate to, what we can work with.

I think that the process of making music is a hard one to describe as well.

I pretty much built a band out of the most incredible guys I could possibly find. I didn't really want a six-piece band, but it just ended up being a six-piece band because these guys are all awesome.

Rap is something you can just throw on the skillet and fry up real quick. That's how it comes to me, my train of thought. It's like getting dressed - I don't have to sit down and stare at clothes, I just pick what I like and put it on. But rock, you gotta put it in the oven and let it bake.

By the end of it, you never know how it's going to turn out. Hopefully if I pick the right songs and put the right melodies on it and all the collaboration works out. it's a win-win situation.

Acting is the work of two people - it's only possible when you have the complicity, the help, even the manipulation of a director.

It's like a cast of actors; you're all working together closely under pressure to produce something everyday. And when we put up an issue, it's like the curtains opening on a new play. I really like that daily sense of surprise.

That said, everything's important, and every musician who plays on the record is an integral part of it.

For me making music is part social, part interaction, part collaboration.

I really like the thing I did with Martina McBride. I had that song sitting around for a long time.

I write bars, for the musicians, because they have to be together.

My approach to recording and all that is pretty organic. It just has to do with all the songs I wrote; go in and record them.

If you want me to work with you, then come with an idea. Come with music.

It's great being an actor and being part of a play or a film where there's usually quite a big group of people who are collaborating, and your job is really to fit in and share that energy. With music, because I write the songs, it's a broader, more abstract process.

The way that I write is I just write a ton of music in the background of my life, and then I just bring it into rehearsal. It's, like, 'Okay, guys. It goes like this. Let's smooth it out.'

I love being part of a creative process, so having a band to work with is perfect for me.

Composing easy? I find it easy if - big if - the idea is right, if I have the right collaborator, and if my collaborator is in the room. I like my collaborator to be in the room.

You don't realize how beautiful an idea is until you do it with other people. There's this really shimmery, awesome thing when you start finishing a song - where the song just starts writing itself.

As a songwriter, I've always loved to tell stories. But in my band, it was always about what would make sense for a band to put out.

When it comes to song creation, I throw in my ideas and have it discussed with the producer. The song gets its own characteristic as new ideas are incorporated.

I am getting to work with some good musicians, artistes, and composers.