God did not want me to be a blind beggar on the street, alone and bitter. He gave me music, first to be my companion and then to be my salvation.
In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.
I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.
Comics, in a sense, the style, the images - it's almost like music. They say music is a universal language, but when the eyes behold something, a figure, somebody moving; it's real, and it cannot be denied.
I work so I don't need to make rent through my songs, and I think if more people engaged with music without needing it to provide for their welfare, you're not beholden to anyone.
Great music is in the ear of the beholder.
Burzum is not a political or religious band, or even an anti-religious band. Burzum is music - art if you like - and the interpretation of art lies in the eye of the beholder.
I basically get stereotyped a lot in terms of being a girl and writing 'chick' music for teenage girls or something. I think, if anything, the press kind of, because of my gender and my age, tends to kind of relegate my work to this sort of special-interest group. It's part of the cultural dynamic, I guess.
I still feel like that 17-year-old-kid that fell in love with country music, but I also am allowed to write songs about being a man, too, which I think is the coolest place I've ever been in my life.
I'm not a great deductive thinker, but I will admit to having competence in a very wide range of things - not being afraid to try to write about baseball, choral music and dinosaurs in the same week and see connections among them.
My life has shifted to different levels financially, in terms of fame as a result of being blessed enough to be able to share my music with the world, and what that has done for me. Despite all of that, I always want people to listen to my music and be able to relate to it as well as to me.
I didn't have any knowledge of the music industry when I first got to L.A., and I really didn't know on a creative level what I wanted to sound like, so I had to do a lot of experimenting. It led to a spiral of depression and being broke.
I think, a lot of times, the mistake in music - even rappers that are trying to be big time - if you're broke, rap about being broke. If you're sensitive, rap about being sensitive, 'cause there are other sensitive people. If you're sensitive, but you talk about being a tough person that doesn't care about anything, people will call your bluff.
People are getting ready for music that makes them feel happy again rather than being depressed at the way the world is going right now.
Soul music as we've always known it hasn't changed. There are different players now with different attitudes, but there is nothing new being done musically.
I've had an experience through music that has touched almost every part of me. It educated me in ways that I didn't get educated in school. So we try to lay on a bit of that, through being funny, being serious, playing hard.
I had a band before I did standup - I've always done music. I got known for being funny, and that's how I make a living - and from acting - but I never stopped playing and producing and recording music.
Being honest is my job. That's what music is for me.
My audience is the baby-boomers, the bulk of the population. This is also a group that is being ignored by most record companies because they're not the Top 40 hit singles market. They forget these people still listen to music.
Since I was, like, an infant... I remember being in love with television. I loved listening to music. I wanted to be on records, and I wanted to be on TV.
