Thomas Mars Quotes

People say my music is English. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's not me writing English music, but that English music is becoming more like me.

I wanted to give people a taste of my own music through the sound and style of my covers.

We have listened too long to the courtly Muses of Europe.

When I started to make music at the end of the '90s, I saw myself highly influenced by hip-hop and techno, but I wanted to apply these ideas to something from the local sound; something that had identity, that would say who we were and where we came from.

As a songwriter, you tend to develop your own style, your own technique, based around what it is you're trying to write and perform, in terms of your own music. So a way of evolving a guitar style as a songwriter is much easier, I think, than developing a true style of your own just from listening to music or playing other people's music.

I didn't want to be one of the Beach Boys or one of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band. I mean, we appreciated that music. But I didn't want to grow a beard to look like Roy Wood just because I liked him.

My Britishness waters my music down!

I think at times the very strong feelings I have about my country coincide with my musical ability, and I'm able to actually turn it into music, a song or even hopefully a memorable song, sometimes. You may find it surprising, but I'm a very intense, proud American. I love being an American.

As I listened more and more to the music that moved me, I gained more fascination with America.

Music is one whole force. And I think the Proms have always represented very clearly that music is a universal language, one that everyone can speak. I've just followed my goosebumps in every direction and have found a recipe for what my music feels and sounds like.

I have sung in all languages, and so every people know me - Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu.

I have always felt most comfortable singing in English, perhaps because I think in English.

In my home, we listened to music all the time. I was raised through music, and I've been interested in it since I was three.

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.

If you make modern rap music, how do you write without ripping off anyone else? It's just about having a distinct voice in your songs.

As a solo artist, my desire is to express myself through my music.

I think people are into me because of my music choices and my musicality.

I do feel a little embarrassed and ashamed that I was sort of saying, "Oh, yes, I used to do country music, but I didn't inhale." Which is not true at all. I inhaled the hell out of country music.

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

When it comes to songs and music, yeah, people love to sing and dance and play music and tunes, and that stream of consciousness that exists in music, nobody knows where that comes from.

Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and many other great jazz musicians objected to their music being called jazz. While the outside world may want to put a label on it, those who create it think of it just as music, and tend not to classify it.

When I sit down to make music, I try to enter a flow; I always open a blank session and just make something that I feel like making.

I'm a musician, so for the most part I've always thought that the musicians were equally as inspiring to listen to - maybe more so, in some cases - in addition to the artists.

Whenever I started writing music, it just naturally led itself there. As I started to tell my story, it's where my home was. It's just a very natural choice.

This pride of race is a quality which the German, fundamentally, does not possess. The reason for this is that for these last three centuries the country has been torn by internal dissension and religious wars and has been subjected to a variety of foreign influences, to the influence, for example, of Christianity-for Christianity is not a natural religion for the Germans, but a religion that has been imported and which strikes no responsive chord in their hearts and is foreign to the inherent genius of the race. (13th February 1945)