Musical Competitiveness Quotes

I think that I sound a lot better than Diana Ross.

Every time we do a new record, we do the best we can. For us, every record is stepping into the ring with another heavyweight champion.

There's no way I can compete with someone who can write rap or rock and roll. Nor do I wish to. But I've always kept up to date with music changes. I worked very hard not to type myself.

I'm the greatest rock and roll drummer on the planet and you suck.

When I was about 9, my brother, who's six years older than me, started getting guitar lessons, and I wouldn't say that it inspired me to pick up an instrument: it was more me being like, 'Well, if he's getting guitar lessons, then so am I. I'm not missing out,' type of thing.

Something happens when the music starts, and all that tiredness just goes away. When it's going like that, I'll take on any 20-year-old hot-shot drummer who wants to try me.

Whenever I go jamming, people are looking to cut me. The young ones learn my stuff and come play it at me, and I have to learn other stuff. I feel a lot of pressure. But it's cool. It's a good pressure.

A lot of people may not know how competitive it is to play classical music, because when you think about it, the music that you're playing is music that's been here for years. And all you're trying to do is improve upon it when you play.

I'm trying to stay a song ahead, two songs ahead of everybody else.

My mom was a piano teacher. It turned into something of a competition between me and her students... I liked the idea that I needed to be better than everybody else.

With my first high school band ever, we would have these breaks in the song for idiotic solos, solos that were un-tasteful and would be shredding, but I needed to put them in there, and I realize now it's because we were playing shows with a whole bunch of bands that were all male.

If there is a better singer in England than Craig David, then I am Margaret Thatcher.

Whenever you face a man who's playing your instrument, there's a competition.

As a vocal performance major, I went to school with a lot of singers who were cocky and not very nice.

I personally think J-Cole is a better rapper than me; that's how I feel.

I don't have to rope in Armaan for every song just because he is my brother. There have been times when I have replaced him with another singer. We don't have a war over it at home.

There's an interesting thing I've seen with Australian bands: when you put them side-by-side with bands from other parts of the world, they're just more musical. They're just better.

I must say it was not very inspiring to see that tons of new bands emerged from nowhere and started to play the exact same music as I did. Why would I want to play this type of music, when tons of other bands did, too?

Folk musicians have a lot of the same self-importance, but they're way more cruel and jealous than rock musicians - I know this for a fact because I used to be a folk musician.

I had studied piano since I was 13, but I was surrounded by students who'd been playing since they were 5. I realized I was never going to be anything but mediocre.

I hope everybody thinks they've got the best album. I wouldn't have put mine out if I didn't think it was the best.

In music, you can't really tell who's better.

A lot of times, people just want to be more extreme than the next band or the next person, and that's all they focus on. That's kind of lost on me.

I was always jealous of my violinist friends and cellist friends who traveled with their instruments.

Australian bands are so self-deprecating - then they go on stage and blow every other band off the stage.