Influential Bands Quotes

Nirvana, Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins, all those bands, at their core, are just really incredible pop music and I think a lot of that stuff has deeply affected the way I approach music.

The reason I got into music was obviously because of bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, things like that.

I was a big fan of the Rain Parade, Green on Red, X, the Rolling Stones.

Well, obviously I wanted it to sound as original as possible. I suppose the influences that we had were probably from the actual power point of view we wanted to be like the Who. Vocally we wanted to be like the Beach Boys, whatever was good at the time.

People sometimes say that bands sound like The Cars, but when I hear it I don't know if they do or not.

We're fans of stuff like Maiden, but I think we generally get it from weirder places. For me, the Eagles' 'Hotel California' represents one of the most brilliant harmony approaches to music. Boston did it very well, too.

Obviously, for Geffen, if it wasn't for us, it's quite possible that bands like Nirvana or Beck would not be on the label.

If you're an American kid, you can't help but be influenced by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones because they're always on the radio.

So many of the bands that influenced me growing up were English, even if I didn't realise it. English pop ruled the world in the '80s!

One of the reasons that the Ramones were so unique and original was that they were four original, unique people.

I do a cover of a Velvet Underground song, and they were one of the most important bands, for me.

My favorite bands were Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Grand Funk Railroad. If you listen to some of my early music, you can hear it.

I recently realized that Television has influenced a lot of English bands. Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, Teardrop Explodes - it's obvious what they've listened to and what they're going for. When I was sixteen I listened to Yardbirds records and thought, "God, this is great." It's gratifying to think that people listened to Television albums and felt the same.

The bands that were big in '77, like the Clash and the Sex Pistols and Talking Heads, I got into them in the early '80s. And it changed my life. It got into my DNA.

L.A. Woman is amazing, but when I was growing up I was into the Who.

I hope fans will go back and listen to the Beatles and the Beach Boys or Led Zeppelin, or put on 'Tommy' and let them experience like I did that moment when 'Pinball Wizard' comes on.

More than a quarter of a century into the band's career together, it's inspiring to hear Melvins continue to deafen new generations of listeners.

I kind of idolized older punk-rock and hip-hop bands, and I was, like, 15 when I started the Beastie Boys. And what business did we having doing that at that age?

I've always employed a melodic style with my leads, placing strong emphasis on infusing romantic sensibilities into what I'm trying to say. Those big, epic melodies come from influences like Pink Floyd, Journey, Marillion... bands that have these guitar parts that are just soaring!

My experience with playing in odd time signatures was progressive rock and learning King Crimson songs as a kid coming up and maybe learning Pink Floyd, 'Money,' that kind of thing.

We grew up listening to so much hardcore: everything from the very early D.C. stuff - Teen Idols, Minor Threat, Dag Nasty, SOA, Government Issue - to bands who weren't straight edge, like Negative Approach. I really feel they were one of the greatest punk bands ever.

On our first album, 'Sounding the Seventh Trumpet,' we were listening to more obscure heavy metal bands and hardcore bands.

A lot of bands have managed to borrow parts of our style for their music. That's fine with me, because we've borrowed from people like the Stones. But we don't want to sound like we're copying anyone, including ourselves, so we're moving on.

I'm lucky to have had the opportunity to perform with bands that have influenced me as a musician over the years.

The bands that wrote the big, heroic rock songs - I really wanted to make a record like that.