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Coming from a working-class background, where my father did manual labor, was a good grounding I was obsessed with getting a job or getting out of the house at 15.

Johnny Marr

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Johnny Marr
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: October 31
Guitarist
Musician
Poet
Record Producer
Singer
Songwriter
Manchester
England
John Martin Maher
Getting
Manual
Working
Manuals
Jobs
Background
Father
Backgrounds
House
Obsessed
Good
Labor
Coming
Class
Grounding

More quotes by Johnny Marr

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I never took fans for granted. I always assumed subconsciously that people who followed what I did were just people who were kind of like me.
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When Morrissey and I started The Smiths, we thought pop music was the most important thing in the world. It was almost a spiritual thing for us, and because of that, we knew what it meant to be a fan.
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Some cities are really boring and straight.
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In the earlier part of the 90s, I was really hell-bent on discovering how new technology works and how to make records entirely without a producer, which isn't necessarily what fans wanted. But I had to do it because I felt it was in my destiny or whatever.
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Earlier in my career, fans weren't a big consideration for me.
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The biggest musical influence on me was my mum. We were both enraptured by music.
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Joining Modest Mouse was just consistent with what I used to do as a teenager: I followed where I thought I would make some interesting music.
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I moved to Portland because Modest Mouse is there. I didn't necessarily mean to live there permanently, but I've got a really good feeling for it. The sensibility there really suits me. I happened to have grown up in Manchester, a city that was a pretty cool place to be a musician. It's close to Portland in a lot of ways.
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I had a feeling about what I wanted to say, and I wasn't really qualified to discuss real things out of America because I didn't grow up there.
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People say to me, 'Do you dye your hair?' and I say, 'Well, does f**king Siouxsie Sioux? Does Bowie?'. Of course I'm going to have a decent haircut. It's one of the first things I learnt to do - get a few songs together and get your hairstyle right.
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Occasionally, a great band would come along, like Blondie or OutKast who could be pop and bring interesting ideas into the mainstream at the same time. That's now gone, because of this weird mutation of pop, rap, R&B, bad rave, and supposedly soulful singing on top of it.
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Sometimes people confuse contrivance and authenticity, and sometimes I think authenticity can get in the way of a good excuse to do something theatrical. I just don't like wasting opportunity - if you're going to do a photo session, if you're going to walk on stage, why not make it interesting?
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Now, I'm a dad, I'm an adult. I've been solo for 25 years I've been in other people's groups but I'm solo [in a broader sense]. I stopped comparing myself to other people's maps when I was maybe 24, really. The trajectory that I've gone on is not one that I can compare with anybody else.
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Don't get me wrong, I think Portlandia is really funny, and quite brilliant, but I like to be in a city where I can hang out in Powell's Bookstore most nights and go out with my friends in a liberal, relaxed atmosphere. I wish more cities were like that.
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I find this kind of folk with guys in Wellington boots and washboards not good to listen to. That music is one step away from barn dancing as far as I'm concerned. Anyone under the age of 60 should not be wearing Wellington boots on stage.
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I've also been with the same girl, Angie, since I was 15.
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The actual process of travel I really like, because that time on planes and in airports makes me feel like I'm moving around like a ghost. There's a certain aspect of justifiable downtime. I really feel like being online is so pervasive now.
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Now chart music is a genre all of its own and it's slipped away from what I understand pop music as. It's pretty difficult to take it clogs up the airwaves.
Johnny Marr
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You've got to understand that. We all look out for Morrissey. It's a very brotherly feeling. When we first rehearsed, I'd have done anything for him. And as a person Morrissey is really capable of a truly loving relationship. Every day he's so open, so romantic and sensitive to other people's emotions.
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Having your own space is getting rarer and rarer these days. It's dangerous giving someone like me - who grew up fantasizing about studios and records - the freedom and resources to build your own studio. I would just live in it, which is what I pretty much did for all of the '90s.
Johnny Marr