Musical Minimalism Quotes

When I started, they told me I only needed 3 chords and the truth... It turned out I could manage with 2 and some vague ideas.

I have loved Elliott Carter's music for many years.

My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity.

I'm really anti-option, so computers have been my nightmare with recording. I don't want endless tracks; I want less tracks. I want decisions to be made.

The essence of Bonham is what he didn't play rather than what he did play - what he left out.

A song just doesn't have verse-chorus-verse. It could just be one line. There are Chinese love songs that you have to learn one melody for a three-minute thing, and nothing ever repeats. I like that.

Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that's stripped down.

When I started out making music I thought it was about thrills and adding layers, but I realized I want to focus on saying the most with the least.

Why play a chord when you can play one note?

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

But that kind of falls in line; when you think about it, James Brown was a funk minimalist. All of those parts create a sum that's larger than than the individual parts.

What's completely insane to me is that people would consider music that's simple to be dumbed-down. Couldn't simplicity be a deliberate, smart choice?

I love playing instruments that I don't know how to play or am not familiar with. I like the idea of danger and innocence that comes from it. As an artist, I feel I should be able to do something with anything I get my hands on. The music becomes minimalist because of my limited knowledge.