Ezra Furman Quotes

Everyone's just extracting meaning and feeling and emotion from almost every aspect of music, and I think that for me, it's a huge antidote to that to have a concept album.

My favorite song is called 'Reachout.' There are so many different stories told in that song. I think anyone who listens to it will gather a different meaning, but each answer is true. I also like the sound of it, period - there are a lot of classical influences.

Every note is a lifetime for itself.

Music is completely not reality. There's nothing about music that has any meaning at all. A lot of people disagree with that, but it's basically true. You can listen to a piece of music, and fifteen people will give you fifteen answers of what it's about.

The guitar for me is a translation device. It's not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn't a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination - a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works.

You're just playing, playing, playing, and then an image or something will come into your mind, and basically you're just narrating it with music, letting it move along.

I'm interested in music as an extension of character.

I'm looking forward to some more solo acoustic dates. That's a lot of fun for me, because I get to be alone with the song. And I get to hear every little nuance; if my instrument does something that I wasn't expecting, I get to chase that. Chase that down a little bit.

There is a real formula to writing music, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge. It's very formulaic. The subject matter that you can address in pop music is somewhat restricted. It just doesn't allow that same emotive quality that you can put into poetry.

Music is the embodiment of my soul. When I play, I'm not performing a song: I'm becoming it.

The main thing for all of us was having a ballad, a slower song. Finally, they get to hear more of a vulnerable side to us! We didn't really have that in 'Reflection,' and that's something we all fought for.

I like pop music, and I like really weird, strange stuff. It just didn't feel like there was anyone doing both.

Like everybody else, I love a good pop song. You know, there's nothing like it. I also just really like music that goes off on extended forays of extrapolation into different areas. So it's kind of nice to be able to move between those two poles.

If I knew what the meanings of my books were, I wouldn't have bothered to write them.

The myriad of ways that a song can be interpreted is astounding to me, and it's part of the allure of writing.

Listening to the stories told in jazz music and how those artists expressed their truths about the times and what they were dealing with is what struck me the most.

Reggaeton is what opened the doors for me, and I'm always grateful for that. I'll do reggaeton for life, but I want to show that I'm an artist who can do everything.

It's really been enlightening for me to work with composers because I used to think that everything in the music was exactly what the composer meant. Well, it's what the composer meant in that moment when they wrote it.

The music should speak for itself, and hopefully it will.

When I try and extract what it is about my music that I do or love or try to create, I'm never aware of it at the time. I just make something.

People misinterpret my lyrics sometimes too, but I mean, it is what it is.

I think the main focus as a musician should be to play the music you love to play, and the rest is going to come naturally.

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

I try to not go, 'I'm writing a pop song.' Music is inherently genre-bending.

Country is and always will be my heart, but I don't have a problem with it spilling over into pop if it wants to.