Dan Smith Quotes

I've had great experiences or joyful experiences making a movie that people found very disturbing.

I find sadness and strife to be so much more interesting with an upbeat melody.

There are times when I'm really happy and I write something really sad, and vice versa.

All through the 'Guttertown' record, there's happy, there's sad, there's strange - and I'm painting that picture.

I'm always trying to reach a transcendent point, a romantic point, but reach it in a really unconventional way, a really profane way. To get to that romantic, touching, heartbreaking place, but through a lot of acts of profanity.

I don't just want to sing about simplistic things all the time. It's good to have a mix of songs that have a real depth, and that provoke and challenge people, and then songs that are fun and people can enjoy.

I don't try and be dark, but there are obviously darker emotions that I want to capture sometimes.

The most aggressive artists often hide their romantic side.

With music, I get to a much darker place. Where I'm able to go with 'Portlandia' has a wider range, but also a brighter range.

I would be pleased if someone would invent a pill to remove my impatience, moodiness, and occasional bursts of anger. But if they did, I wouldn't be able to write my novels or paint.

I don't like to make fluffy little songs, but now I want to make some light songs.

In our music, in our everyday life, there are so many negative things. Why not have something positive and stamp it with blackness?

Having a very serious thematic element in the lyrics and then juxtaposing with something really triumphant and just a big beat to dance to is a nice contrast to having a dark message.

I have two moods. One is Roy, rollicking Roy, the wild ride of a mood. And Pam, sediment Pam, who stands on the shore and sobs... Sometimes the tide is in, sometimes it's out.

Sadness is a very interesting idea, this idea of sadness being some kind of default setting that artists will go into. And then I started thinking about this idea of sadness and happiness, and the idea that sadness is very loud, and happiness is quiet.

It is almost impossible to reconcile self expression with the creative act.

I want to take people away from the ugliness and sadness around us every day and bring beautiful, deep music to as many people as I can.

Sad music, I always thought, is more beautiful than other music. But at the same time, I am in my personal life a very happy guy. I have a sense of humor. I am not the kind of depressed guy all the time brooding. No. I am very enthusiastic about things.

There are really a lot of dark shadings to a lot of my stuff.

You can look at 'Rumours' and say, 'Well, the album is bright, and it's clean, and it's sunny.' But everything underneath is so dark and murky. What was going on between us created a resonance that goes beyond the music itself.

Writing dark poetry was always my escape.

Sometimes I feel like being an intellectual. Sometimes I like to just be aggressive and all the way in my feelings. Sometimes I might be emotional, or sometimes I might drag on the track and be lazy. I just like to share the different states of existence of Kevin Gates with the rest of the world.

I like the contrast in making something that sounds sunny but also has an element of melancholy to it.

Often when you're working on dark material, the atmosphere is fun.

You see it in the stuff I've done at Laika: I've always tried to make movies that have an artful blend of darkness and light, intensity and warmth. That have a thinking brain and a strong beating heart at the centre of it.