Coffee is pretty big in my life. It shows up in my lyrics a bunch, the same way the ocean does. It's a constant force.
I am an incorrigible coffee geek. I make espresso.
The great thing about jamming is that you come in with zero preconceptions. Someone might want to play something that suggests something else to you, and the next thing you know you're on a 20-minute adventure.
It's like wine and food, or coffee and a pastry - coffee's awesome and a chocolate croissant is awesome, and together, they're transcendent. To me, music is the same way. Chris Stapleton is transcendent. Julien Baker is transcendent. Together, they're going to be euphoria.
There is a certain immortality in the change that another person effects on another person.
Hats off to musicians who just want a pure escape. I have a lot of fondness for pure escapism. I don't feel like it's irresponsible, I think sometimes you really need to take a breather.
There's a lot of steps between there not being music and there being music. Composition is one part of that, but if no one performs it... It's like if a tree falls in the forest and no one's there to hear it, does it make a sound?
For one, the whole concept of 'Live From Here' - writing a song every week - was like composition bootcamp.
I'm always going to need to play in front of people.
I play the mandolin, which people don't often expect great things from. But it has it's charms, and it's my voice. I feel like I had as little choice in the matter as I do my speaking and singing voice.
The world's music is at our fingertips, so if we like music, we kind of owe it to ourselves to check in with all of that.
Really the greatest music I've ever heard I've hated the first time I heard it. It's been abrasive at first; it's been something that challenged me in a way that I wasn't fully comfortable with.
I think there's probably really wonderful music that has been lost due to the lack of preservation methods way back in the day.
Generally speaking, I think one has to take reviews with a grain of salt, unless you know who the person is and what their qualifications are.
I was introduced to classical music by my grandparents - my parents were mostly into folk and jazz. Even as a young man, I was literally unaware of the distinctions between any of that, and I still think it's pointless.
The goal of serious musicians is to play outside of yourself. That's most likely with people who suggest things that are outside your musical experience.
I'm a musician, and I feel like musicians owe it to themselves and owe it to music to concern themselves with as much of music as interests them. Even if you decide that you're never going to compose, you will be a better performer if you concern yourself with the craft of composition.
I would love to be one of those fellows who combine formal and folk music approaches.
I'm really not handy. I'm not good at things like changing a light bulb. If something is broken, the chances of me being able to fix it are slim to none.
For years, my actual listening activity has been governed by what I perceived to be good for me as a musician, almost like the way an athlete trains for a given sporting task. I'd listen to something if I felt it would improve my sense of harmony or counterpoint, or whatever I was working on.
