Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Stephen Malkmus
Age: 58
Born: 1966
Born: May 30
Guitarist
Musician
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Santa Monica
California
Stephen Joseph Malkmus
Studios
Magic
Nice
Anything
Take
Really
Studio

More quotes by Stephen Malkmus

Image
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
Image
I just imagine that every song in and of itself is great, but when you add them all up, it's too much of me maybe.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
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
Image
My wife is a big fan of George Oppen and I got into him. I could have a career like his. It's not an alpha male situation, George Oppen. It's quiet. It's poetry.He just lived a life of an intellectual poet.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I didn't really like confessional poetry or things. They seemed sort of dated to me, or just corny.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
It's just a compulsion to create something new and stay busy. I don't know how to do anything else. It was never exactly right. Those records came out in spite of their flaws. And because of their flaws they were good.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
Оur music, it's an acquired taste. It's almost cult, even at our level. It can mean nothing to somebody and it can mean everything to somebody else.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I really do think everybody can sing.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I think most musicians know if they make the same record twice, even if they say they don't.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I want to do some different kind of songs, but say I want to do riffs, but I don't come up with any riffs that I really think are great. Then I can't do a riff album. I'm more of a song, melody person.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I'm sort of socially inept, so music is my way to connect to people. It's a means of socializing and having a life. Otherwise I wouldn't bother. I would just make home recordings and play them for myself. And that's not really healthy.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I've lost my writing skills since college. I couldn't write a book. It would take a long time.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
I would just imagine there's a criticism for just about everything, if you want to take something down. No one's invincible. The Jicks are a work in progress and we don't think everything we do is the bee's knees or something, we're just trying our best to get turned on by what we're doing.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Basically, no one else gives me any opinions on lyrics. I don't ask for them. If they did, I would listen.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
My wife says that I changed people's lives or ways of thinking and that I should always be proud and grateful. If I'm dismissive of what we do sometimes, a little bit, she's like, I was a fan, you changed my life, or whatever. That's what she says.
Stephen Malkmus
Image
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
Image
What I love about music, when you can look at something and be like, Wow, what's this all about? You can't really picture what these people look like - is it one guy, or a band making music in a garage?
Stephen Malkmus
Image
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