Bryce Dessner Quotes

It's funny because as a composer, you want to hear your songs live on. I think a lot of times people will create a song and it becomes stagnant or something that they're no longer interested in playing, and they leave it alone.

You start out playing in kitchens, and you end up playing in kitchens.

It's always performing for me. I write and I record so I can perform. It all ties to that. I've done it since I was a little kid. That's my absolute rush, is playing for different people every night, bringing something else to the table they've never seen.

Music is so much fun because each song is like a film in itself. You get to go from beginning to end and interact and exchange energy with a live audience.

I think that my performances with Led Zeppelin got better with each performance and I think that our performances as Led Zeppelin Experience have also gotten better with each show.

When I recorded 'Cooler Than Me', I had been singing for like, three months at the most. I was just a producer experimenting with my voice on tracks, and now I'm, like, a really good singer in a legit way.

I feel my live shows are my music; everything blossoms from the live shows.

There's an awful lot of resources that can be drawn upon in an improvised music concert.

On 'Van Halen,' I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning,' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.

Songs always get better after you start playing them live.

I've been making music for a long time, since I was very young, but at the same time, I'm still exploring what works for me. I feel like I'm just starting out.

It's been a long time since we've been out there playing new material, and we have really enjoyed that. Of course we still enjoy playing the Yes standards as well, but it's great to have a bit of a challenge and pull off new material.

Live music is better.

When I was 19, I joined a rock band, and that's when I began to say, 'Okay, this is something that I could take seriously.' When I came to Minneapolis, it just refined everything.

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

I think one of the things about writing in the studio is that the song hasn't matured, if you like, so quite often the vocals are early attempts. Whereas once you've taken it out on the road a bit, you learn more about a song.

I really enjoy creating music onstage, to participate in making music live.

You always feel like rock critics are frustrated musicians. I envy musicians their ability to live their art and share it with an audience, in the moment.

When I play live, I feel how the audience is going and follow and lead at the same time.

I had so much fun playing songs from 'Based On A True Story...' and getting to see the crowd's reaction to those songs was unforgettable.

You know, songs often have a very coloured past. They might have something about them but it still doesn't work, so someone else adds a bit, and someone else adds a bit so perhaps one day I'll know its full history.

Fortunately any of the songs we've recorded can be extremely fulfilling to perform depending on the variety of circumstances that surround any given show.

It accumulates over the years and I've led so many bands of my own now and forced myself into new situations... You would hope that you play better and better - until you just get too feeble to do it anymore.

I wanted to write songs that would play themselves on stage, songs that sweep you through their current.

It's a constant challenge to get your arrangement and musical expression across to a new audience, especially when you're playing live every night like we are.