Richard Bonynge Quotes

I've played in bands with A-team players around. But unless they can play together, it doesn't do any good. And you can take guys who may not stand on their own up against a bunch of individuals they might be compared to, but you put 'em together, man, and they are unique unto themselves in a way that no one else can touch.

Band members have a special bond. A great band is more than just some people working together. It's like a highly specialized army unit, or a winning sports team. A unique combination of elements that becomes stronger together than apart.

When you get the right people together, writing music becomes very effortless.

I believe in singing to such an extent that, if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing becomes a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for cooperation with others.

Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate.

And then as we played more and more as a trio, it became more and more of a situation where we realized we really knew how to use the fourth member of the group - that space. The thing about the trio is that it's the biggest sound you can have with the smallest unit.

Just because you put super great musicians together, it doesn't mean you're going to have that chemistry as a band.

For the sound we produce, everybody is equally important. Each of us has a very different personality and that is what keeps Bush alive.

A good band is like a team. You want to have the right balance. It's not always the best people you need, but the right ones for the job.

There's a beauty in being part of a band, when there's equality and trust.

I tell everybody, if you've got a band that works, it's a miracle. It's never going to be perfect, but if it works on some level, hold on to it with both hands and don't ever let it go.

In 'Heart of Gold' at one point, there were 23 players on the stage with him. And part of what's magic about Neil is the way he interacts with the other musicians.

Whatever we do as a band, none of us can do as individuals. We all know that, whatever we have gone through with each other and as a band.

There is a real joy to be able to get up and react to each other and appreciate the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, just the chemistry of the group.

Every time you go in to make a record with the same group of musicians, the communication gets better and better. You've got that joint experience, and you learn with every single one that you have on top of that.

When I was working on The Wire with the other actors, scene after scene after scene, I felt like we were singing together. We were dancing together. I'm like, "This is the best ensemble I've ever worked with. I'm working with these cats? Holy mackerel, this is heaven."

I love working with ensemble groups of actors.

With all the different guys in the band and all the different ideas of what's what, it's hard to get everybody on the same page sometimes. We are a very tight brotherhood, but we never know what we're going to do.

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'm a big believer in building a crew. Movies are the most collaborative art form at the tend of the world, and it takes hundreds of people to make one. At the end of the day, I get the lion's share of praise or blame but everybody on the ground knows that it was all of us.

Rick Rubin was able to do things that Dave Fortman could never do. I'm not trying to take anything away from Dave Fortman as a producer. He's extremely talented. He wasn't able to get nine people together on the same page and, to me, that's the most important thing in making a Slipknot record.

There was something about the chemistry of the band and we would feed off each other. It was a gang of girls unleashed.

We do make sure that one person doesn't stand out. But then, we are really unique. We all have our style, so I think we all stand out. We each have our own roles and positions in the band, and then we work together to make sure we all try hard for the Army.

You can't do seven successful albums and just hate each other. Our yin and yang, and night and day, is what made us great when we went into the studio.

I think if you can get the right bunch of people together, and you're in the room and it just feels right, then the music will come.