Jonathan Richman Quotes

I personally don't like to use as many effects because when you play live, something always goes wrong.

At the Isle of Wight, the sound went out and kind of kept on going. And I wasn't... when I came off stage I was kind of unhappy about how we had played. But now, I listen back to those recordings and it's not bad.

I have no experience performing that music live in front of an audience. So that remains to be seen. I'm very excited to see what that's going to be like.

I've never, ever in my life enjoyed playing live the way I am now.

Classical stuff takes a lot of rehearsal time and preparation, but with stuff that involves improvisation, you can over-rehearse it and it gets stale. You don't want it to be too comfortable. In fact, a good sound check, a good rehearsal usually means a bad performance.

We seem to do better in the studio than we do in a live environment.

I just learned my lyrics and tried not to bump into the trumpet player. That was my philosophy.

That gets me upset- you're jamming along, checking out the crowd and having a good time, and then your equipment goes down. You can't just stop the show and say, 'Oh, Jeff's got a guitar problem.'

Live performance is everything. First of all, I have terrible stage fright. But beyond that, once the music starts, it's OK.

To finally be able to actually play the piano with vocalists and actually do, like, a proper concert - that feels really good.

I think there's an attitude these days that you can go straight from a studio to the stage, and it isn't really like that. But playing live was the most important thing for me at the start because whenever I recorded something, it didn't sound right; I didn't like how my voice sounded. It was just raw.

The music comes alive when you actually perform it in front of a crowd.

Like when I'm singing live I can't hear myself. I'm just listening to the rest of the band. To listen to my voice, it doesn't even feel like it's me.

I'm really looking forward to it because it will give me the opportunity to do the whole other kind of approach to the music live that I haven't had a chance to do. and I think is important for me to do.

I've always enjoyed playing live onstage.

The first time I performed musically, I threw up.

For me, doing a show, the excitement of singing live, and the possibility that you're not gonna be perfect - that's the thrill of it.

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

There's something interesting about playing live; you're in the moment, and I think it would be beneficial.

I'm very proud of my records, but my most natural creative tendencies have been in live performing. There's a beautiful element to recording and making records, but I've always felt a little shy with it.

Well, you know, I mean, I first did my live shows in the late 70's and in those days I had a boatload of equipment that always seemed to be going wrong.

But I love singing live. Nothing beats the feeling of going out on stage and going, 'I can really sing.'

When I had my first gig, I was 18 in January in 2007. My first gig that I got paid, I was playing for 10 people in a 250 people capacity venue. The promoter wanted to book me because he liked my music. I played a couple of songs that made people dance. To me, that rush has always stayed the same.

I never went to concerts when I was a kid, so I never knew if what I was doing onstage was right.

Playing live is such a total visceral experience, and really, as a musician, you're trained from the beginning to be a live performer.