I'd been making music that was intended to be like painting, in the sense that it's environmental, without the customary narrative and episodic quality that music normally has. I called this 'ambient music.' But at the same time I was trying to make visual art become more like music, in that it changed the way that music changes.
People should listen to my music if they are into a lot of different genres and kind of want to get it all at once, if they want to listen to a story, an interesting story about somebody else.
I've always hated narrative songs. I hate those songs where, basically, it's an unfolding of a story.
Each song, you're telling a story and acting.
I've seen music and songs used in stories, and while sometimes it works really well, often it doesn't.
You can get away with a lot more in a film or television score. It is contextual.
My first album, 'Englaborn,' was based on music originally written for the theatre. My solo albums, like 'IBM 1401, a User's Manual' and 'Fordlandia,' have also had narratives attached to them.
I love story songs because I've always loved books.
My favorite records are, like, The Pretty Things' 'Parachute' and 'S.F. Sorrow' and The Mothers of Invention's 'We're Only in It for the Money' and The Kinks' 'Village Green Preservation Society' - these records that have a story - even if it's not a literal story - because of how they're sequenced and flow. It's like a novel with sound.
I love the opportunity to tell the story about the characters through the music.
My task is to tell a story with the music. I always like to have themes in terms of characters or plots, and things that can tell a story always interest me the most.
It would be cool to custom-write music for some kind of story. That'd be cool.
I started out writing music for theatre and contemporary dance, so there has always been a dramatic and narrative element in my music.
Styx was always a theatrical band. In fact, we played City Center in 1983 with a rock opera, 'Kilroy Was Here.'
You're just playing, playing, playing, and then an image or something will come into your mind, and basically you're just narrating it with music, letting it move along.
I have such pride in furthering the American musical and using it as a way to tell story.
For me, you say the words 'concept record,' and the first thing I think of is theater or the opera or something.
I really get that some people like the roots-rock, storytelling thing that I was doing, and I'm proud of that.
I love songs that tell stories. They make you feel something, something real.
Never Mind Nirvana is the first novel I’ve read that makes music as important as food, clothing romance — a fresh twist millions will be able to identify with – and the music of Lindquist’s language is a perfect match for the subject. I think he’s the writer to watch in the new millennium.
A lot of my early career, I wrote story songs that had narratives, that had plots.
