Tom Waits Quotes

I want to explore diverse genres.

The fun for me musically is that you never quite know what works and why. So why pretend you do? Why not just put things together and discover, in the creative process, if and why they work? That approach has served me well.

I can't just turn over and sing disco or rock.

In terms of music, I can try anything I want, even something that doesn't work at all, because I'm not putting my career in jeopardy.

I can't re-define music every week!

I've never played it safe on my own music.

Musicians are always eclectic. Musicians are always curious and hungry for new things.

What I always try to do is to respond to the song; I've always rebelled against theory.

Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

Being able to take musical ideas through every iteration is attractive to me. Granted, not everyone's going to want to listen to that, but it should exist.

Being an American musician means being adventurous.

Pop music is so structured, and I'm excited to try and challenge that in my own work.

I'm not really allowed to talk about the Dead though. I think when we are at our best, we definitely do things that the Dead or no other band could do. We explore things and take things to the extreme.

It never gets boring for me because there's so many different things to explore in the studio. The studio's become the sanctuary that people have come in and found new things out about themselves, as weird as that sounds. But it's true, I'm no different. I've made some crazy hard records, and I've made a jazz album.

All the big artists I talk to say that they are trapped in a formula and they are looking for the music of tomorrow.

What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

I'm definitely a risk-taker with my music.

It's a very subjective, personal, instinctive approach as musicians of saying, 'We don't want to replace what's around; we just want to widen the possibilities.'

I never thought that I would be creating my own 'cross-over' genre. What I did was very real and organic. I have worked in so many different styles so it all just came together.

Hip hop is doing the new rock thing; there are no rules. They can do anything, really. And that's inspiring.

To keep creating something with this type of music, you have to take it out of the box.

Any talk of 'craft' makes me laugh. My music looks outward; it does not gaze upon itself in admiration. Artisanal is for cheesemakers. I don't know anything about music theory. Every time I approach my guitar, it's like the first time. There's no craft in that.

I wouldn't go so far as to make 'You Don't Own Me' a tango or 'It's My Party' a hip-hop thing. Believe me, those things have been suggested to me. But I thought if I could stay true to the song, the arrangements would work. I'm really enjoying singing them.

I got to realizing that I wanted to record, I wanted to experiment. And doing those same old songs the same old way - I said, 'I think it's time for me to have some fun.'

I've been really trying to hone the art of songwriting in a way that doesn't follow any sort of guideline.