Russ Quotes

Really, I just sit down, mess around, and play with sounds.

I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it.

I worked on 'Cadillactica' with the mind to not sample as much and focus on creativity.

I began by tinkering around with some old tunes I knew. Then, just to try something different, I set to putting some music to the rhythm that I used in jerking ice-cream sodas at the Poodle Dog. I fooled around with the tune more and more until at last, lo and behold, I had completed my first piece of finished music.

You should find the dopest producer in your area, and that producer is always going to want songs written to his beat.

I grew up writing songs in my room on GarageBand, and I would make the beats just out of layering my vocals over and over again. Very Imogen Heap-inspired.

I've already got notebooks full of ideas for new music, so I'm gonna kind of nurture that just like I do all of my ideas and perfect it until it's ready and then I'll just let it go.

I started out really making music in my dorm room, and it wasn't really producing or anything like that; it was you making something.

Rap is something you can just throw on the skillet and fry up real quick. That's how it comes to me, my train of thought. It's like getting dressed - I don't have to sit down and stare at clothes, I just pick what I like and put it on. But rock, you gotta put it in the oven and let it bake.

I'll hear a beat and think, 'How can I make this a banger?' I'll write the lyrics on my phone or on a piece of paper, and either way, it's going to be a slapper.

I tried several times to get the song right. The tune and the chords that I started with, there really wasn't anywhere else it could go. I stopped fighting it and let it take me away.

I really don't think records should be made in the manner where you sit and write, and when you're finished writing, you start recording. That just seems conventional and old-fashioned to me.

Today, it's very tempting to create songs by cutting and pasting in the studio.

You have got to make new music, that is the way that I look at it anyway.

Getting caught is the mother of invention.

I get the music, I get the beats. And I go to the studios and write the lyrics.

I'm never tired of going to the studio. I enjoy recording and documenting everything and trying new things.

When you tune your guitar in a different way, it lends itself to a new way of looking at your songwriting.

I can operate in half-a-song format.

That's the thing I love the most - making records and creating new things. That's always the thing that grabbed me. Making records is the thing that I really love.

When you're making an album, it's, like, exciting every night you make something new, but you're the only one who gets to hear it.

I think it's good that producers are showing more ways to show their artistry and be more the artist, you know? Not just the producer in the back making the beats.

That's what I'd rather be doing more than anything. I love to play and perform and write, record, do whatever - just stay in music.

I stay in the studio. I'm a studio junkie.

Success is good, but I have seen the other side. I don't think much about it. I just work towards making a good melody, with catchy yet meaningful lyrics, and as I'm a music producer and arranger myself, I know the sound I need.