Dan Bejar Quotes

I can't fool myself into thinking that musically I don't need other people, whether it's as a foil or just to come in and make real the ideas that are kind of vague and wispy in my head.

I'm not really sure that I have the same definition of things as other people. Like, when people talk about being "engaged" with the audience, I'm not exactly sure what they mean.

I always start with the lyrics, because starting with the music means the words will be bad.

I don't banter with the audience, cause I don't have anything to say to them, and I'm not feeling any sense of ease or camaraderie when I'm on stage.

I like putting common expressions next to uncommon expressions. I'm sure in Poetry 101 there is a name for it, but it seems like you usually go one way or the other in rock music.

Kaputt was just a record that did really well for us, and therefore our record label and our booking agent said that we should go out and take our message to the world.

Moments of unexpected sweetness happen when romance enters, which always happens in songs - if just for a split second.

I force myself to care about the music end by wrestling with it for years.

There are too many Destroyer records to just start rattling them left them off, but they're there.

I'm probably more into a more spacious, even meditative, quiet delivery of singing.

I'm more focused as a singer and hands-on with music and more exacting, and less trying to furiously fit a thousands thoughts into a four minute song.

I don't really know what's going on with the Pornographers - everyone's kind of doing their own stuff. I mean, they play shows here or there.

When I'm on stage I don't say anything. The last thing I want to do is share my thoughts. I don't know if that's mysterious - maybe it's just old fashioned.

I like playing music. I don't always like the feeling of people looking at me. I don't think I'm, like, a natural performer, but I'm getting better.

Even though people like to say Destroyer [albom] is gibberish and all that, I usually know exactly what I'm saying at every single moment.

I knew what real instruments I wanted and, in some cases, who I wanted to play them. I had started listening to a lot of ambient music and jazz and I wanted to incorporate stuff like that, too.

I'm just a sucker for new-agey synth sounds and instrumentation. I wasn't really thinking of soft rock, but I know that kind of quiet-storm format uses a lot of these sounds.

I'm not that conscious of my writing, so pacing the lyrics doesn't really enter the picture.

Most musicians don't write about being a musician cause most musicians aren't writers.

I was born in 1972, which means that in "rock" terms I have no business addressing "the kids" unless it's to shoo them out of my garden.

No one appreciates a professional anymore. Everyone's a mystic. Which is why I take drunk Jim over acid Jim - the argument all roads eventually lead to.

Part of me likes words as music sabotage, and part of me wonders why anyone would waste their time liking anything to do with sabotage.

I like playing music. I don't always like the feeling of people looking at me. I don't think I'm a natural performer, but I'm getting better.

I guess my guitar parts are usually precise, but the execution of those parts is downright treacherous, since I'm not very good on guitar.

I think the more removed I feel, the more I warm up to the role of singer.

Really good musicians don't think of "self-reflection."

I used to struggle a little bit with the idea of how to separate singing from acting and entertaining.

I'm just kind of lazy and messed up and self-managed - self-mismanaged.

I've never had any kind of work ethic. I've never sat down with the intention of writing a song.

Once you feel like you can safely quit a melody, you are free to explore more important things.

The more I abandon ideas of myself as a musician, the better a singer I become.