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The narrative songs were well-written, like an article in The New Yorker. They're nice and pat. They're more like I'm just showing I can do that when I write a song like that. It's not my true calling.

Stephen Malkmus

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Stephen Malkmus
Age: 58
Born: 1966
Born: May 30
Guitarist
Musician
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Santa Monica
California
Stephen Joseph Malkmus
Write
Articles
True
Showing
Wells
Narrative
Well
Calling
Writing
Songs
Like
Written
Nice
Yorker
Song
Article

More quotes by Stephen Malkmus

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I'm not dying for things to say.
Stephen Malkmus
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I'm not dying for everyone to hear everything we do. Forty minutes every two years is sensible.
Stephen Malkmus
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George Oppen wasn't a larger than life personality, but I'm not either. And he lived a long time, so he was happy. Going down in flames is fine, too.
Stephen Malkmus
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I know the world doesn't need maybe another of [a particular type of song] - the same thing again - but you can't help yourself. And some people like it, but you kind of know in your heart that it's a lesser version of what you've done before. But maybe it has a good tempo, or it feels fresh, but it's still not.
Stephen Malkmus
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Everyone wants to be loved, generally. If you released a record and nobody said anything, if you didn't get any feedback from people you don't know, i.e. the press, you'd be sort of upset. To me, any press is good press.
Stephen Malkmus
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That's why you go to a nice studio. You can get a magic take. You don't really have to do anything to it.
Stephen Malkmus
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Despite my own doubts of being marketable or crushworthy, my goal was to write a record of peppy pop songs, hopefully without annoying anybody.
Stephen Malkmus
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When I see four young kids in a band, I think, That looks really fun, no matter how shitty they are. You develop your own thing, and get excited about your band name. It's all so harmless.
Stephen Malkmus
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I just don't think people listen. I mean, they can't listen to a whole album closely without checking their iPhone or wanting to skip to their favorite song, or putting something else on, practically. That's why the zone out is a good thing.
Stephen Malkmus
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Things tends to often [consolidate] like Disney. It's the same with music. There's Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young and Patti Smith. There's these three people that everyone seems to agree on. No matter what they like, they seem to like those three.
Stephen Malkmus
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I think the focus of the media changes. At the moment the more electronic stuff like trip-hop was the flavor of the month, just a little while ago. It all depends on the angle, from which point of view you see it.
Stephen Malkmus
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When a band means a lot to you, you build the fantasy more than the reality. Always.
Stephen Malkmus
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I still hate [the Eagles]…. There’s levels of evil in it to me.
Stephen Malkmus
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Maybe I don't have the patience to make a virtue of necessity - the patience to carry something all the way through, and to actually say something. Lately, the songs are more jagged and they don't really lend themselves to that. I just take it one bit at a time.
Stephen Malkmus
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Well, you know, it's a younger person, and it was maybe an effort to be a little more sincere and adult about the lyrics occasionally, which is a good thing. It's nice that it's not too self-conscious like some of our lyrics could be.
Stephen Malkmus
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I don't really know where the songs are coming from often. Many of the best things I made up were just off the top of my head.
Stephen Malkmus
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I didn't really like confessional poetry or things. They seemed sort of dated to me, or just corny.
Stephen Malkmus
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Something taken off the page can sound great, I guess. Usually it doesn't. It seems like lately Pitchfork is trying to champion lyric writers more.
Stephen Malkmus
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I'm thinking, I'm singing like Ozzy Osbourne, but I don't sound like him enough, ever.
Stephen Malkmus
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I've lost my writing skills since college. I couldn't write a book. It would take a long time.
Stephen Malkmus