Bill Laswell Quotes

I'm disregarding all the rules I've seen as people approach writing music. I'm trying to break them.

But I've always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what's expected of me, and I've always been able to do more than you necessarily hear with every band I've ever played in.

What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

To keep creating something with this type of music, you have to take it out of the box.

I think to stay in one sound is a career killer.

Miles Davis would have this lineup of all these amazing musicians and one day would just say, 'We're done.' After tons of great records and tickets sold, he said, 'Now I'm going to grow my hair out and play my horn through a wah-wah pedal.' Rather than play it safe, he went on.

Certain jazz musicians just copy what was done 100 years ago. The music won't grow if nobody takes a risk.

Lil Uzi and I gave Philly different sounds by stepping outside of the box and not sticking to the stigma.

The only intention I've ever had creatively, as a musician, is to be as different from myself as possible.

The only way I'm comfortable with a new album is if I'm taking a new risk.

I've never been one to just play safe music and think that's all there is to it.

The fun for me musically is that you never quite know what works and why. So why pretend you do? Why not just put things together and discover, in the creative process, if and why they work? That approach has served me well.

I think to try to make new music and new ideas, you have to push the boundaries of existing music.

I think it's always important to constantly keep the band on their toes and try new things that you hope will work. That's how 'Apologize' was born, and maybe down the line another little song will be born by that mentality. I've always really liked that song.

See, there were certain rules I'd always used, and people like Trane, they would break those rules.

You need the past as a guideline. The history of music is a good basis, but to escape that stuff, that tortuous rulebook, you have to learn it first. It's kind of like religion - once you've written the Bible, that's it, move on.

I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool.

I got a chance to work with Miles Davis, and that changed everything for me, 'cause Miles really encouraged all his musicians to reach beyond what they know, go into unknown territory and explore. It's made a difference to me and the decisions that I've made over the years about how to approach a project in this music.

Hip hop is doing the new rock thing; there are no rules. They can do anything, really. And that's inspiring.

In the beginning of rock n' roll, there was always innovation. Artists were always trying to do something new and something different.

I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way - I said, 'I think it's time for me to have some fun.'

What I really like doing is taking risks, musically.

There's a steady forward march of a creative process that some of us stay with and don't give up - that should be an admirable thing - from Louis Armstrong to Charlie Parker to Miles to Ornette and some people who are not even known today - some kids coming up - people who are out to change the world.

I think every time, before we do an album, we have a discussion where we sort of consider the idea of doing something radically different.

What happened with reggaeton is that many artists kept recycling the same sound. But there are a lot of reggaeton artists that are still in their prime - like Daddy Yankee - because they've chosen to continue growing, to offer people more than just reggaeton. That's where I learned to always be able to try something new and not be afraid.