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I thought The Doors were the greatest band for a while.

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
Greatest
Thought
Band
Doors

More quotes by Stephen Malkmus

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There's probably a certain confidence in your voice, or something, that is validated. You know what I mean? I'm just imagining if people didn't already say that you were cool, that you'd [have] more doubt in what you're doing. That's not so conscious, but that's part of my cosmology now.
Stephen Malkmus
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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
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Basically, no one else gives me any opinions on lyrics. I don't ask for them. If they did, I would listen.
Stephen Malkmus
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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
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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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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
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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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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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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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The earlier stuff is more like this is happening to me, but now there are more songs that are accusatory or something, or more declaratory. I don't know where that voice comes from, like, I've been down the road, we've been there and done that. That's sort of like a tougher style, or a less vulnerable style.
Stephen Malkmus
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We [ Paverment] were definitely unafraid of playing wrong notes and singing wrong things. We could be fearlessly bad!
Stephen Malkmus
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I'm not sure if you can blame everything on the American way of life, but the United States are big. So, if you have a lot of people there, the percentage of stupid people is bound to be higher.
Stephen Malkmus
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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
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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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We're probably a couple of freaks who've created their own little universe, are living in our own little world and that's the only place where we can survive.
Stephen Malkmus
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It's sort of irritating now - people always ask me, You're a dad, and how's fatherhood? If Bob Dylan or Neil Young had a kid, it didn't seem like it made them a different person. It didn't make you old right away.
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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I think most musicians know if they make the same record twice, even if they say they don't.
Stephen Malkmus
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Like the song Stereo, to me that's like, kind of hip-hop in that slacker way. There's some slackerisms mixed in with that stuff, but it wasn't really conscious, I guess. When things would get more typical rock'n'roll that was my fallback to go to those kind of lyrics instead of the alternatives.
Stephen Malkmus
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So much of rock lyrics is just a mirror of real feeling. It doesn't feel dangerous to me. They just feel like rock lyrics.
Stephen Malkmus