David Draiman Quotes

I'm universal. As much as I can get out a 'Firework' with Katy, I can get a 'Lil Freak' out with Usher. Or a 'Lay It Down' with Lloyd. I can get Caribbean as I did on 'Rio,' then go from there to working with No Doubt.

I tried to take heavy metal... and balled it up and chopped it in half and really tried to create a new form of energy. I really tried to re-shape extreme music as I see it through my eyes.

Who's to say a blues man can't play rock and roll?

The Strokes can play anything. They could play 'Thriller,' and it would just sound like 'Thriller' as played by the Strokes.

I'm this strange kind of fusion of jazz, pop, and R&B.

I think one thing you could probably say for all my albums is that they're all pretty eclectic pop. There's always a little bit of urban influence, some dance, a little bit of country, singer-songwriter, pop-rock. I like everything! On every album you can find that.

Lauryn Hill's always been a hero of mine. And Bruno Mars, Janelle Monae and Adele, those are the current artists I would reference in terms of who's been able to do really amazing pop records with really cool, organic throwback elements of soul in there as well.

Sting I've seen a few times, and he really inspired me in the sense that he breaks the songs down a lot and will take a different approach. He'll take an acoustic approach to them; he'll rearrange them for the live stage.

I like everything from hard-style techno to rock n' roll.

In between 15 and 20 - probably at around 17 - my interests switched from hard rock to punk rock. And then by 20 they were circling out of punk rock back into Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, the stuff that I didn't get to when I was younger.

We're a gumbo of American music, and aren't ashamed to play pop or soul or rock because we all grew up on radio.

I love music, that it changes so much, but I also want to keep a bit of the country roots to make it country. I don't want to go too far away from it, or I would do pop music.

The fact that Stravinsky used the classics as a major influence is obvious. What is interesting is how he used them, how he turned Bach into Stravinsky.

I've always said that I count myself as a classical crossover artist. To be so, you have to have the core classical training, which I did for many, many years, but also be interested in the pop side of things. You can fit in somewhere in the middle. I feel I do that really well.

I pride myself on being the type of artist who can work half in the R&B world and half in the pop world.

I'm not a salsa singer who wants to sing in English, and I'm not this American kid who wants to sing Spanish.

I love most melodic music - classical, reggae, big band, jazz, blues, country, pop, swing, folk.

I like The Erised for the harmony of their addictive beats mix, and I like Allie X for her distinct style and incredible lyrics - they are pure art.

If you looked at my iPod, you would get a trip out of all the different music, from the real heavy metal to bluegrass to classical.

I wouldn't want to cover a Hank Williams song in a country-western way. It doesn't occur to me instinctually to re-create productions. I'm interested in re-creating songs. Putting different clothes on them.

When I was 16, I'd ping pong between AC/DC and Barry Manilow without any sense of irony.

People ask me how could I go from country to jazz. It's been a natural convergence for me.

Music is music. It doesn't matter if I am trying to aim at country or trying to aim at pop.

Originally, we had a band known as Steely Dan. As we moved away from the band, we got whoever was appropriate for specific tunes. In a lot of cases, we gravitated toward jazz players who had more sophisticated harmonic concepts.

I have such an eclectic taste. I like listening to classical music and pop music.