Alan Gorrie Quotes

To play music, you have to understand it. I didn't understand 'Topographic Oceans.' That's why I hardly played on it. It frustrated me no end - and playing the whole thing on tour, I got farther and farther away from it.

I'm like any other composer. If you give me five years to write a symphony, I'm still going to be asking for more time two days before it's due.

Many composers are asked to come up with three great songs in ten days... But it's rare for us to pull that off. You cannot force the brain to make a great song and I'm very scared of doing bad work.

The way we like to make music is we'll announce a project when there are zero songs, and then we take that pressure and try to make an album really fast.

I never got the chance to put drums on 'Watersigns,' because the company was in a rush to release it - and me.

It's just hard when you've spent so much time on something, writing and recording, laying the vocals, getting the hook right, getting the beat right, making everything sound right - you spent a freaking week trying to make it sound perfect, and someone comes along and shoots it down.

I did this film for less money than it costs to stay in this hotel. We shot it in 20 days. We couldn't screw up takes for fun because we didn't have enough film.

I can't do anything in a minute.

From a very early period of my life I have derived the highest enjoyment from listening to music, especially to melody, which is to me the most pleasing form of composition.

I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines, nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation.

Oh, I'll tell you about 'Anyone Can Whistle' - the lesson I learned with doing that record is that the simplest songs are the hardest to do.

Currently I'm working with Parker Fly on a new Midi guitar to arrive next year.

We always write way more than we put on a record. We always write a lot-lot.

Just trying to get a film made which is always difficult no matter what kind of a budget you have. Not having a budget makes it even more difficult. Having nineteen days and no budget makes it extremely difficult.

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties.

You only have a week to do a show. I mean, there's only so deep you can dig in that week.

It was kind of like songwriter's boot camp. You had to produce. You had to produce fast. You had to learn.

In two days, it's hard to to get the quality you would normally want for a design project.

I'd experimented with so many different types of music. I had these folky songs I'd written and recorded, but something wasn't quite right.

Oddly, when I started to make the record, I wasn't aware I was making a record. I just was sort of disgusted with the whole thing and sequestered myself in the basement and started playing the piano just for something to do.

I do love the musical form, although it's often disappointing.

I have no time to write songs.

I try to, at least, think very melodically, and my band forces me to think very melodically.

It's hard to evolve when you only have fifteen days or three weeks to practice and correct and change tactics.

I rarely like the music I make. It's like nothing's good enough. I just stay in my head, waiting on the next best beat, so I can do something better than what I did.