Casey Abrams Quotes

I've never been one to just play safe music and think that's all there is to it.

I feel that when you care about your music, taking risks is something you should do to keep things exciting.

What happened with reggaeton is that many artists kept recycling the same sound. But there are a lot of reggaeton artists that are still in their prime - like Daddy Yankee - because they've chosen to continue growing, to offer people more than just reggaeton. That's where I learned to always be able to try something new and not be afraid.

I took a lot of time to open myself up to taking chances musically.

I'm definitely a risk-taker with my music.

Certain jazz musicians just copy what was done 100 years ago. The music won't grow if nobody takes a risk.

Especially with Fantomas, i'm just trying to stretch out what the band can do. Figuring out, really, on the job or on recordings, what I can or can't get away with.

And I'm interested in writing music that takes risks. My point is that maybe the term EDM is pinned on me and my buddies, but maybe it'll be less so if I experiment.

If you're always playing the correct notes, there's something wrong - you're not searching; you're not reaching for anything.

I think it's always important to constantly keep the band on their toes and try new things that you hope will work. That's how 'Apologize' was born, and maybe down the line another little song will be born by that mentality. I've always really liked that song.

I've never played it safe on my own music.

Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

Music should always be an adventure.

I think to stay in one sound is a career killer.

Miles Davis would have this lineup of all these amazing musicians and one day would just say, 'We're done.' After tons of great records and tickets sold, he said, 'Now I'm going to grow my hair out and play my horn through a wah-wah pedal.' Rather than play it safe, he went on.

The only way I'm comfortable with a new album is if I'm taking a new risk.

There is a reactionary conservative side of classical music, which is not the most exciting side of it. The side that draws me in, there's a real encouragement of risk-taking, going back to masters of that tradition like Beethoven and Bartok and Stravinsky.

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they're stuck in that safe place.

I come from an art-school background, and I still feel that in my music, it's about exploration and challenging myself, about putting myself in a place that's frightening because I haven't been there before.

In terms of music, I can try anything I want, even something that doesn't work at all, because I'm not putting my career in jeopardy.

But it can be hard to experiment when you're in a band.

From my time in 'King Crimson,' I'd describe a Progressive band as one that keeps trying to break musical barriers, and keeps trying to do new music.

My intentions have been, and are always, to just really get behind what my ideas are musically and to just ride this thing out, cause it feels good, and I think for the most part it's good music. Even when it's not, I'd like to still search for something that could be even like a little bit mind-blowing or shocking to me.

Musically, I always allow myself to jump off of cliffs. At least that's what it feels like to me. Whether that's what it actually sounds like might depend on what the listener brings to the songs.