No I.D. Quotes

For me, something will come in my head and I'll either end up calling my cell phone to record it, or I'll just pick my guitar up and see what comes out. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't. So there's really no set method behind it.

Often, I find it really hard to see what I'm doing when I'm in the thick of things. I can get too precious and have to force myself to put my paintings aside. There's a wall in my studio where I hang paintings that I think are done or nearly done. Over time, I'll realise which ones are working and which aren't.

I'll just start laying out the melody exactly where I want it to fall. And then I'll go back and fill it out. Whereas, in other pieces I'm really just going a couple bars at a time.

Instead of thinking that's a nice tune, you start thinking is it the right pace, is it the right tempo? That is the death nell for artists.

It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in.

Sometimes, it's better to stop thinking and trust your instincts. That's what I used to do when I first started making music, but as time goes on, you can sometimes over-intellectualise things.

Taking your time with music is real important to me.

It's really hard for me to finish a song unless I have a strong visual in my head while I'm writing it.

It's gotta feel natural. I'm always into that, and after awhile, if I am working on a song too long and trying to make something out of it that it's not... it's best just to stop and move on.

Trying to write new music is definitely daunting, but I try not to overthink it.

I think after a long tour and after an album, your brain feels like it wants to relax, but at the same time, making music for me is something that comes kind of naturally. Just like a brain process.

Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.

When we were making Speaking in Tongues and Remain in Light, we were jamming. From that we were taking the best bits and then recording and improvising on top of those.

A lot of times, if you're not getting inspiration right away, we'll listen to stuff to get inspired.

Sometimes a chord on a guitar will somehow spur some thought in your head, and you will write a song about it.

With our first record, we wrote concept songs but not a concept record.

I feel like guys, girls, whatever it is, you just come out hoping to make the best record. You just try to have a conversation and just create what you've talked about. Whatever you find to fit the beat at the time, what the person is down for, wherever the beat takes you towards.

There's this existential argument that comes in, at some point, when you're over-thinking the songwriting process. There's no guarantee that the more time you spend or the more you concentrate on certain aspects that that's going to produce a better result, especially in the arts.

I'm always pulling and really feeding off of my inspirations. I think most musicians do.

When I do music I don't think about urban music, pop or country, I just think about a good song.

I really just care about making music and how I can make it next.

There were two things I discovered when I toured with Snoop. One was that the band was all jazz musicians. The second was to instil in me a respect for other styles of music. From then on, whenever I played a new kind of music, I came with the same kind of open mind. What are they trying to do? What are they hearing? How do they see music?

The whole idea of doing an album is overwhelming sometimes. But, I get inspired when I get inspired and that's when it flows easily.

It feels like when novelists say they find their characters are doing things they never thought they'd do, the material comes alive, and that's how I feel making music.

I couldn't find a way to write music with numbers and rules and schedules. So I tried to forget the academic idea of music and started to see if it was possible to do creative work, taking in all the influences I wanted to keep.