Taylor Hawkins Quotes

Because you have things like 'American Idol' and you've got radio stations that play music made entirely by computers, it's easy to forget there are bands with actual people playing actual instruments that rock.

Everything is so computerized these days and it's all edited and everything. Everything sounds so perfect, and we just want to be a band that sounds like a band.

I think the world is ready for some rock 'n' roll. Some real time guys that play their own instruments, write their own songs, and sing the music and have a good time doing it.

Women do not like CDs of live music. We only like the original recordings. If a song sounds different from the version we fell in love with, then it's awful.

AC/DC, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper - I learned stories of all these guys. That's when I fell in love with Queen, which is one of my favorite bands of all time... I started paying attention to what made music good. I started paying attention to why I liked it.

Rock music is not meant to be perfect.

I think the greatest records we've ever heard, from Zeppelin to Purple to Sabbath to The Who, were all recorded in the studio live.

I had never done TV. I think it's a foolish medium for, most rock 'n roll music. Nobody ever comes off well on TV.

The greatest records in the world were made without going to Auto-tune or Pro Tools, or having some click track. If they could do it, why can't we? Something's been lost in music. It's all been over-produced, squashed down, totally compressed.

I use Auto-Tune but it's not to mask anything. If you come to see me live, I can sing on the spot. Auto-tune is just for the recording. It keeps everything really precise.

Our recordings, you feel that it's been, not labored, but you feel that it's been constructed in a way where sometimes it's hard for us to create the feeling that this was done in a room.

I would give anything if it went back to analog age. I mean, music was so real, and you had to sing everything on a record; you had to play everything on a record. There was no cut-and-paste - you couldn't get the chorus right one time and then paste it every other time; you really had to be good at what you did.

We've shown everyone we are musicians first and foremost: we'll produce our own albums and play The 100 Club. We earned people's respect. We're not the band on MTV, wearing a bunch of makeup. We've proved we're the real deal.

The best way to use the auto-tune is not to! And that's what I do: I do not use auto-tune!

To me the most important thing is getting into a studio and making an album that is 12 or 14 amazing songs, getting up onstage, and making people happy by livening the rock.

If you put lots of auto-tune on your voice on the album, people are going to be disappointed when they come to see you live. The imperfections make it better, more natural.

Just from the beginning, I really liked playing around with tape recorders. And then, when I got into punk rock, I only really liked - the rawer it was, the more I was into it.

I never liked jazz or anything else. Early rock n' roll - that was music to me. Everything else was boring.

I am one of the barbarians - I love rock and roll.

One of the most fun parts about my job is that when the music gets recorded live at the end of the project and real musicians play it, I still get goosebumps every single time.

I believe in rock and roll and heavy music in general.

When you're recording live, really good vintage instruments onto two-inch tape, it's the best fidelity you can get.

I love making records. That's my favorite part of the whole process. And I love playing live, but certainly getting the music on a disc that's going to live forever and be there forever, just every little detail drives me crazy.

A lot of those early blues records and soul records were pretty much live. It was what it was, and they had goofs and mistakes, but it still kept its charm. We have to remember to keep the feel. It's so important.

I'm very aware of what, say, electric guitar recordings in the '60s sounded like.