A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.
There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.
Being a professional musician doesn't mean you spend 12 hours a day playing music. It means you spend up to 12 hours a day taking care of business, dealing with litigation, with the various characters who've stolen your interests, or fending off hostile lawsuits from former members of the band.
My life as a professional musician is a joyless exercise in futility.
Linguistic philosophers continue to argue that probably music is not a language, that is in the philosophical debate. Another point of view is to say that music is a very profound language.
I'm not really interested in music. Music is just a means of creating a magical state.
I'd say that what we hear is the quality of our listening.
The quality of artistry is the capacity to assume innocence at will, the quality of experiencing innocence as if for the first time.
If an apprentice does not hear what a master hears, is then that quality not present in the music? Yes and no. In the world in which the apprentice lives no.
I recommend my students not to be professional unless they really have to be. I tell them, 'If you love music, sell Hoovers or be a plumber. Do something useful with your life.'
Michael Giles the first drummer of King Crimson, never agreed to the name King Crimson. But then, if you'd knew Michael, you would know he didn't agree to the album cover either. So maybe Michael didn't agree to the point of definition with many things.
My life has improved so much since I stopped doing interviews.
But above that, most mature adults can hold their attention on something for 45 minutes, whether they like it or not. But above that requires training.
The perception of the audience is the interesting part. If the audience doesn't hear what is going on, is it going on or not?
If a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?
In terms of an identity, an identity reflects an individuality, by definition. And, if there is a quality present, it is recognizable and it can be named. If you can't name it, it means you don't recognize it.
I couldn't concentrate on music. So I made the choice to give up my career as a musician in the frontline to deal with the business.
What is necessary is possible, what we want is expensive. What is unnecessary is unlikely.
Now, if King Crimson accepts responsibility for innovating its own tradition, you can't accept responsibility for the audience. And there is an enormous tangible weight of expectation, which comes from an audience attending a King Crimson concert.
Then certainly for a musician timing becomes something that is immediately accessible as a concept, because it's a necessity in ones everyday performance.
