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Songwriting is reliant on inspiration, which ideally you don't have that much control over. Songs kind of half make themselves, and then you have to finish them.

Win Butler

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Win Butler
Age: 44
Born: 1980
Born: April 14
Banjoist
Composer
Guitarist
Mandolinist
Musician
Poet
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Houston
Texas
Edwin Farnham Butler III
Much
Reliant
Kind
Ideally
Make
Finish
Songs
Inspiration
Control
Half
Song

More quotes by Win Butler

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The Flaming Lips have been on Warner Bros. forever, and certainly everything I heard growing up was on a major label in some way, from the Cure to Radiohead to Bjork.
Win Butler
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In the UK, tons of records are now sold in grocery stores, because there are no record stores - it's iTunes or the grocery store. And almost every band that had an impact on me was on a major label. There's value in people actually hearing things, as well.
Win Butler
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Years ago, in order to stay sane, I had to really make an effort not to think about how people view us. There's just so much noise, positive and negative, and not much good comes out of thinking about it.
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I just wanted to make something in the world and worry about the rest of it later and not get too caught up in rules.
Win Butler
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If I was a cabinetmaker or a commercial fisherman, it would be the same question - how to connect to my world. The job we do affords us the opportunity to have people listen to what we say. But a lot of people have a similar situation: They're trying to find a way to do some good.
Win Butler
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I studied scriptural interpretation, which is more about how people get meaning out of texts, looking at stuff in the Old Testament - Muslims, Christians, Jews, different interpretations of the same texts.
Win Butler
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I always find live shows on film kind of boring. Even my favorite ones, I kinda zone out for most of it. It's just so different seeing a band in the flesh and then watching a film of it, even if you have a hundred cameras and it's shot from every angle. There's just a communal, visceral thing that never translates very well.
Win Butler
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When I was living in Boston I worked in this store that played the college radio station. I had to listen to it all day, and I didn't care for most of it.
Win Butler
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A lot of stuff is dark in a way, but unless you're really looking at a situation for what it actually is, it's hard to be hopeful - or meaningless to be hopeful about it unless it's actually based in a real possibility.
Win Butler
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What I miss [about church] is being forced to be in community with people that aren't the same as me.
Win Butler
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Major labels just lost their way. It's like the housing bubble. They lost a sense of the fundamentals.
Win Butler
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I find myself a lot more open to bands if I just hear their song. It gives you an opportunity to engage with the thing itself and not be overwhelmed by everything else that surrounds it.
Win Butler
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I don't think the emotional quality is the defining quality of the music but it's definitely something that people have picked up on a lot
Win Butler
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It seems like the record industry made so much crazy money in the 1960s that everyone wanted to get in on it. Now it's just become very corporate. So all of these people who despise music end up being in charge.
Win Butler
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Music is made by individuals. Some artists will be very politically overt in their songs, some will be more subtle. You have to be true to yourself, true to your nature.
Win Butler
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My favorite English teacher in high school showed me 'Brazil' when I was 15 and it blew my mind. It's one of those movies that's revealed itself in different ways as I've gone back to it over the years.
Win Butler
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I think filmmakers all secretly wanna be musicians and all musicians secretly wanna be filmmakers.
Win Butler
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I think you have to want to be really famous. It's a lot easier to sabotage your career than to have a career to sabotage.
Win Butler
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There's the idea that you have to know how to solve the world's problems in order to feel that something is morally wrong. I'm always back and forth between optimism and depression about the situation.
Win Butler
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When I was younger, bands helped me connect to part of my humanity bands that had nothing to do with anything political helped to form me. There's a correlation in that: If people can connect to music, maybe they can connect to each other.
Win Butler