The thing about 'Fantastic Beasts' is that it's in the wizarding world, in J.K. Rowling's world, but it's not a Harry Potter movie. It takes place 70 years before Harry comes into being, so while we tip our hat and acknowledge in a respectful and witty wink and a nod kind of way to 'Hedwig's Theme,' the score is composed of all new material.
Cover versions, that's my forte, that's all I ever used to do. When you play your own songs, it's quite scary, 'cause I'm quite honest and open, they can be very revealing. But covers, I don't have to think about, just get me up there!
I'm still more comfortable with standards than with my own songs.
My first band, Kid Wicked, we did half covers and half originals.
I took part of Alan Silvestri's theme on the original movie, which I really liked, and I pulled it into it new theme, which became kind of a hybrid. I really enjoyed that.
I was about 10, and I was supposed to be playing the piano at the school concert, and I got up in front of the whole school and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm changing the agenda. I want to play some songs I've written.'
Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.
I worked on 'Cadillactica' with the mind to not sample as much and focus on creativity.
Sometimes when you sing someone else's song over and over again or songs that have been given to you, you're afraid to go out there and write one yourself.
I really enjoy doing remixes, but I don't want to be known as just a 'remix artist' for the rest of my career.
There's so many great songs already written, it's kind of really wonderful you don't have to write your own.
When you sample something, you're using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that's already great, that's already stood the test of time, that's already special. When you're trying to do it all from scratch, you're writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.
Most people think in order to validate yourself as an artist, you have to write your own songs. I commend the guys that do. I've done it. But I also think that you can pick great songs outside that you didn't write that can help your career.
Whenever I sing, I try to make it different, the sound that you've never heard before, and put something new, which people love.
I've wanted to do a Christmas song for years but thought every lyric and melody had been written.
This song ain't black or white and as far as I know it don't infringe on anyone's copyright.
I never have used any other artist as a model for a sound or a song. It always has to come from an emotion, and capturing the essence of that emotion in a song.
If you go out and just play the old stuff and never write new stuff, you're not really a complete musician, you're a performer.
I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States.
You knew after eight bars that you were hearing something just absolutely new and unique.
I'm sure I could start a band tomorrow that would have different influences and would want to do something completely different than anything I've done.
You don't go to other books and take little pieces because although say a romantic scene may have been many times before all the details of who it is, where it is, are so intertwined in that text that it's easier to write it from scratch.
What did we play in the Harry Dean Stanton Band? It was old blues and country - all covers. I never wrote anything.
We want to be able to make our own songs and write our own arrangements. We want to incorporate the live sound so we can be free onstage and in the studio recording. That way we can come up with original and creative stuff.
One of the coolest things Twickenham Fest does is to commission new works.
