Jack Antonoff Quotes

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'm dead serious about my craft and just really serious about making music in itself. I take pride in making songs and albums where no two songs sound alike. That's the challenge and that's what it's all about, to keep it original and fresh and funky.

The most important thing is that you honor that musical integrity, whether you make music that sounds like ABBA or you make music that sounds like Void.

I'm not trying to become a pop artist, and I'm not trying to make sure I stay a country artist. I'm just trying to make sure I make the best music I can, according to my way.

I don't have a classical-music mentality. I haven't been taught that way, and it doesn't fit my character, either.

In the past, I tried to be more of a typical session guitarist. I wasn't so concerned with impressing anybody.

In Atlanta, there's no limitation to where you can take your music. You can be as creative as you want to be.

There are times when what's happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.

People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play.

What is nice about country music today is that most artists are not trying to do something everybody else is doing. They really are trying to develop their own uniqueness.

When I did 'Frankenstein,' the record company said, 'Now you can do 'Dracula' and 'Wolf Man' and we'll call the whole thing Monster Rock!' and I said, 'No, that's not going to happen, I'm not going to do that.' I kind of enjoy defying categorization. I love music in and of itself. I love the beauty of harmony and rhythm.

I've always considered myself something of a musical rebel.

There was a lot of freedom, so bands in those days did not have to play for the public. They played for club owners that enjoyed music. You know, what happened - there was a lot of clubs that had bebop music or different forms of music. It was great for musicians.

When it comes to music, we should be hoping for as outlandish a Republican candidate as we can get.

I think the people who are saying jazz has to sound a particular way, or, 'What you're doing isn't jazz,' are just scared because they can't do it. A lot of them just aren't talented enough to do anything new, honestly.

I love listening to things like those wonderful piano pieces of Stockhausen. It's just not my thing as a composer or performer, and thank goodness we're not obliged to be Modernist any more.

If we do a record, and there's a reggae song, it's not shocking to us. If we do an all hip-hop song, it's not shocking to us. We all listen to that sort of music. It's not about what's in at the time; it's what feels right to us and what we're comfortable in doing.

I just don't let music genres define me.

Some people say that if you do anything other than a straight-ahead groove, that it's not jazz. But that kind of labeling is wrong. Music is what it is; if it sounds good, it sounds good.

I've always wanted to make records that rock like hell. But also, I've never wanted to compromise that Country place deep inside.

I'm suspicious of the idea of categories in music and this idea of things being in boxes. To me, that seems unnatural. I write the music that somebody with my biography would write, and the thing that's always driven me is an enthusiasm for the material. I sort of follow the notes to where they want to go.

Music was everything. Now it is just not as important as it used to be. When I was growing up, where everyone was trying to outdo each other by being more outrageous and sounding more different, now there is a homogeneous sameness to it all.

Sound-wise, I'm really limitless in the way I write songs. Whatever comes out, comes out. Every song is completely different.

I want to speak in the tradition of rhythm and blues and soul music, but also push how it's dressed and how it's delivered to the audience. And hopefully that gets embraced by as many people as possible, but the goal isn't necessarily to speak to everyone. The goal is to get it out as exact as it is in my head.

If you are a soul singer, you are a soul singer. If you are a heavy metal singer, then you are a heavy metal singer. What's color got to do with it? I don't go around thinking, 'I sing soul music and I'm white.' I just sing the way I feel.