John Darnielle Quotes

In the performance sense, I find that interpretation is improvisatory in nature. You can go anywhere with an interpretation on any given day.

I'm not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I'm not thinking about anything other than - I'm just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I'm just going to do it.

I've never written lyrics. I get up in front of a microphone, and I just sing what comes to the top of my head.

My act is sort of improvisational. I have a skeleton in my head, but no fat or skin on it.

You know what the material is so that you never play it the same way twice.

All of my solos were improvised initially - I would go in and get my bearings and see what I came up with.

I never sing a song the same way twice.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

I never work out my leads. Everything I do is usually totally spontaneous. If someone says, 'That was good; play that again,' I'm not able to do it.

I like to improvise.

That is a big danger, losing your inspiration. When I work in film and television I try to do each take a little differently. I never want to do the same thing twice, because then you're not being spontaneous, you're just recreating something.

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

I love improvising on the spot. I like that pressure.

I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.

Well, I would say that music just happens with me, I'm not in the driver's seat when I am at the piano, the piano is.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

I don't have to worry about writing jokes. I just tell stories about things that have happened to me. As long as I'm alive and I'm living and I'm experiencing different things every day, the show will always change.

Usually, my favorite joke is whichever joke I most recently came up with that surprised me the first time I thought of it.

The interesting thing about improvisation is you're making something up in front of the audience. Now music helps you out a little bit because you have an instrument that'll separate you from the audience.

When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards.

There's never any pressure on the music having to be something.

With human beings it could be argued that all music-making is, in essence, grounded in improvisation.

Improv plays such a huge role in finding great lines - you'll be surprised at what comes out of your mind inadvertently. A lot of times it's better than a script you've worked out ahead of time.