Top 93 Quotes & Sayings by Cass McCombs
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Cass McCombs.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Thank God we don't know a lot about Shakespeare or Moses or Homer or Lautreamont. These are the best guys we got, and their art is powerful because they're mysterious.
Sometimes I feel like I finish a song, and there's another song that I have to write in response to that song. Each is like its own separate feeling, its own separate universe.
I've always thought about myself as somewhat of a folk musician. I just write words. I don't think I'm even a musician. I don't play a lot of instruments, not really a soloist or anything.
Musicians wake up and create a more loving community by creating heavier music.
I don't need to control anything. Even with romantic partnerships, I don't need to control anyone.
I write for myself, and I write for my friends and people who I have a connection with. I try to give some dignity to peoples' lifestyles that tend to be ignored.
A lot of people don't know what it's like to actually be hungry. I do. I've also slept on the streets.
A baseball team is like a band. Because, conceptually, there are no heroes in baseball - there's just the team.
I project love, music and love, and I pray for peace. A good song cuts straight to the heart; sometimes it doesn't need to be too many lines - of course, I do love a good story.
People expect not just songwriters but all personalities to pontificate about their egos - they just wanna see someone talking about themselves constantly. I'm not interested in that.
I don't think I'm a particularly somber human being.
Even if I'm writing music, it's with a lyric in mind, to communicate some kind of feeling.
Lyrics are my racket; music is play - the fluff stuff.
Opinions only carry weight in the second or third person.
I was just a folk singer. I cut my teeth on the streets, you know.
I don't think music is my job - I don't think about it that way, because I don't really get paid. There's no paycheck at the end; it's more of a 'whatever is left over' kind of situation.
When you play with great musicians, whether they're schooled or self-taught, they keep you on your toes. It comes down to people's personalities and individual energies.
I'm making music with my friends. It's fun. It should be fun. You shouldn't make music if it isn't fun.
I love songs because by nature they are concise; they sum up. I try to use as few words as possible. It's usually funnier that way, anyway.
Folk art has never been much about politics; it's about action and utility.
I don't care much about politics. That kind of witchcraft I stay away from because people end up dead. I'd rather die for music.
Music is the marriage of the feelings of the living to the wisdom of the dead.
I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me.
I think I have some very meaningful relationships with people; we all do. At the same time, I recognize that everyone is following their own heart; there's been people who have left my life, and I don't have a problem with that. This is a transitory world; we're all spirits just looking for love and finding it and holding on.
I have no idea what will become of my work in the future, the future folk will not be aware of our influence over them, as we are unaware of how our dead influence us.
I've always littered my songs with jokes. You might need to dig a little deeper to find the humor, but I would totally object to being some kind of distraught personality. I've never tried to attach myself to that.
I wouldn't go into the studio if I didn't have a band who's ready, willing, and able.
It's hard to make out the difference between insults and bad advice.
I grew up in the suburbs and was raised on rap radio, so it took me a long time to stumble upon the acoustic guitar as a resource for anything.
You can't just explain a joke. Either it isn't funny, or the person just totally missed the punchline.
Bringing the individual into it music only distracts from the universal and makes it trivial. And then it's easy to wash your hands of it because you might not be from their background, or you might disagree with their personal perspective. So you discount it and go back into your corner instead of coming out and engaging with everything.
I've always been interested in an idea of boundless love - an impersonal, big love.
I have been singing as long as I can remember. I used to be in choir; I used to do musical theater. I'd prefer not to sing my own songs, but there you have it.
Try to keep your mind. Try not to eat bad, try not to wake up with too bad of a hangover.
Once biographical information contaminates your consciousness, it's impossible to erase it and look at someone's work the same way again.
It doesn't mean that I'm overly enthusiastic about much music. Except the people that really touch me. It has to touch me, it has to grab a hold of me, I'm not looking for anything in particular.
I think I like singing when I'm singing live. It's just in the studio when it's a drag.
That's what I mean by "Western morality," is the lack of morality. There is none. People are out for themselves, and they'll stab you in the back.
Beggars can't be choosers. We don't have all the money in the world. So anyone who wants to be in the band and be broke - that's their own death wish.
If it's possible to have an enemy without making it personal or moral, then that's what I'm trying to do.
It's not like that when you're a songwriter - songwriters aren't like pulp writers or journalists, even. You just follow the muse. It's called muse-ic. Whenever the muse decides to bestow her inspiration on the songwriter, then the song is born.
I couldn't write a political song. There's just opinion; it's all arbitrary anyway. It's all subjective.
I want to make something that's useful to someone, somewhere.
Elvis Presley wore a Star of David and a cross around his neck and, when someone asked him about it, he said, "It makes me think." I love that quote. It's simple. It's beautiful. It's true.
I took piano lessons when I was a little kid, but even before that, you're singing in the classroom and wherever. Gosh, children are always singing. But I took music lessons, some choir and things like that at school. I learned how to play the guitar when I was about 13... ancient history.
I don't like the word "happy." I wouldn't want to use it that context. I enjoy writing songs, it's a really good challenge, it tickles me. It's a wonderful way to engage with your surroundings, through poetry and songs.
I hate my voice. I've never been comfortable singing.
As long as there are a few people there, I can lose myself, which is the ultimate goal. And that's happening more and more; the non-musical world is becoming less and less interesting to me.
It's not my way to talk about my feelings. They're impudent to myself, so it wouldn't make any sense if I tried to explain them to anyone else. I've never been to therapy - not interested in it.
People just wanna see someone talking about themselves constantly. I'm not interested in that.
I just like writing lyrics. I find a little satisfaction in performing live, making records. But primarily, I just try to write every day.
I think it's worthwhile to expand your comfort level and just do something awful. I wasn't trying to make music for money.
I don't really write for an album. I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me. It's all a complete accident.
This is rock'n'roll, not classical music. It's about people working together.
Loneliness is the most compelling force in the universe.
Dead men always have the last laugh. They win. They're dead. You can't hurt their feelings anymore.
People expect not just songwriters but all personalities to pontificate about their egos.
Everyone wants to be well-loved and appreciated but, at the same time, there are some people that just don't want to be your friend, and there's nothing you can do or say to change that.
Making music and art is about expressing something that's universally human, maybe even beyond human, at best. To make it about the artist and to dwell upon biographical information can only make it singular, and I am really, really disgusted by that.
I'm not trying to write for the masses. I don't care.
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