Ben Gibbard Quotes

If you go out and just play the old stuff and never write new stuff, you're not really a complete musician, you're a performer.

Now, when we first started, I would be playing something good and then feel like I wasn't doing the right thing and launch into some idiotic cliche. Luckily for me, Bobby was patient.

When I first started making music, I wrote the lyrics first, but now, because the music has got kind of wilder, I've flipped it.

When I first started playing, I plunked away just like everyone else. During the Sixties I played in a blues band for a few years, and I liked it. It wasn't until I was playing for a while that I made the decision to change my style from a percussive to more of a legato approach. I just wanted a different sound.

It's amazing to me to see how bands evolve and how they take all their influences and come up with their own sound.

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.

I feel like bands should be growing, living, functioning entities and to crystallize a band into a single album, and for that to be a touchstone - I understand it from a fan's perspective but I also feel like it's a little bit misleading in terms of the way bands actually function.

The early Bon Jovi stuff I can't stand. I just think we didn't have our stylistic voice. But some people love some of that stuff.

Jazz is not the format where I want to stay, but it really is a starting point for me.

And this whole period of time of gradually working at being a better guitar player and songwriter have gradually led me to the point where I feel I'm doing a clearer representation of the thing that I've been feeling inside me since I was four years old.

I'm just going to make the music I love to make, and I'm going to mature with my music.

I started playing and writing songs when I was eight.

When I wrote my debut album I was around 17, I didn't really know what my sound was or who I was and what I wanted.

I've always listened to a wide variety of music, and I know that shows through my songwriting evolution.

My music's matured so much, I don't have to create any barriers.

If you actually go back and listen to my first album, there are some things on there that are kind of rock 'n' roll.

My playground as a musician is growing.

We'll see some simplistic players for a while, who'll then get into more complicated things and evolve with their instruments. This is a cycle that happens over and over again in music.

It's probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters that have led us to where we are musically.

I grew up listening to everything. I have such a love for music, but I don't want to make the same album over and over again.

Any band on their first couple records is just trying to keep up with their inspiration.

I have been accused of being a very simplistic, very lyrical player, and that's okay. That just comes from the blues, which is my background. But every day you wake up and transcend. You can't ever rest on your laurels.

I think everybody knows my sound because I'm me, you know? But, on your fourth album, I think you've definitely gotta show growth because I definitely don't plan on being one of those cats that fade off. It's always about growing with me; I grew up over the years.

I've always made music - pretty much since I was born.

I started writing songs when I was 10. It was a natural way to express myself as a kid. It wasn't until I started listening to jazz, joined the choir and picked up a guitar that my little hobby became something far more serious.