Sxip Shirey Quotes

The way I approach things is from an experimental folk music standpoint.

I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.

We all like all of that, from 'Rubber Soul' to 'The White Album' and all of that, but even before, we were into that theatrical element of things. We didn't want to do a 'Sgt. Pepper's' thing.

What we admit to is being a rock n' roll band. From day one, I was a big Chuck Berry fan.

I never started out as an R&B singer. I grew up on all types of music - jazz, rock, pop, country, folk - and I wanted to bring that to my stage.

In blues music, there's a lot of borrowing, so it's often difficult to identify the originator of a song.

I think with me and the type of music that I'm trying to make, it's always going be soulful because I grew up listening to different types and variations of soulful melodies and jazz, but experimenting with different types of stylistic souls.

I loved a lot of different kinds of music, but for my own thing, I went for the singer-songwriters.

I've been writing a lot more folky, country type stuff. One of the reasons I wanted to write in the first place was because of Darrell Scott.

I didn't grow up with classical music. My father was a folk music singer.

Some of the Junior Boys' textures may be borrowed from synthpop but, formally, their songs would be impossible without twenty years of the rave discontinuum. And where synthpop was self-consciously European, the Junior Boys have pioneered an electronic Pop that speaks in a Canadian accent.

After all, folk-fusion is my favourite genre.

At a young age, I was introduced to Joni Mitchell by my mum. My dad was into progressive rock.

'The Muppet Show' was huge. I watched it all the time as a kid, and I really loved the way they used music on that. I also remember hearing the radio in the car as a kid, like Stevie Wonder and Simon and Garfunkel.

Technology was changing just as we were getting started. You had these records by people like David Bowie and Talking Heads and Brian Eno that took production into a whole new direction. That really influenced us, and pushed us to find that early sound we had.

The music scene in Michigan is really folky and bluegrass, but my parents played a lot of disco. They really liked to dance.

My sound is, at its core, a mix of things. Definitely an imperfect mix, but one that incorporates elements of the music I love - a bit of indie rock, super rhythmic rapping, and lots of synths.

I started on acoustic guitar after I heard Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy.

I think the first song I remember hearing was Joni Michell's 'Big Yellow Taxi,' my mom played it for me on the car radio.

Cudi should be a top tier artist... I think he fathered a lot of the style of music. He's a good influence and a good help.

I started out with acoustic guitar and loop pedal because I thought I wanted to be Ed Sheeran.

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. They're my biggest heroes. I love everything about Leonard Cohen: his lyrics and his voice. He seems like a really clever man, and Bob Dylan does as well. He's just really cool.

Growing up, Tina Turner was definitely one of my influences, and, um, I take things from different artists, and I put them in my music, and I put them in my persona and my - they help me form into the artist that I am, so - for people to actually hear that come through the music is exciting.

While I was writing the songs for 'Fuzz Universe,' I was immersing myself in Bulgarian Female Choir music, Baroque lute and violin pieces, Johnny Cash songs about trains, cows, mules, and mining coal, the Bee Gees, and Ronnie James Dio.

I remember being inspired by this band Godflesh, actually. They were a really heavy metal band, really nihilistic.