A Quote by Ben Hopkins

I think the earnestness of what we're saying and what other bands like us are totally saying - or other queer bands - is 'We exist.' — © Ben Hopkins
I think the earnestness of what we're saying and what other bands like us are totally saying - or other queer bands - is 'We exist.'
I think there are plenty of good bands out there, but the great bands aren't affected by what's going on around them, trends and all that and competing with other bands and wanting to be the biggest, we find that happens a lot. Bands look at other bands and think: that's what I want, you know? I think that remaining.
What I am doing is making songs that I like that I think sounds like other songs that I like. I'm really trying my best to emulate bands that I like a lot. Which I think is what a lot of bands are doing, whether they're saying it or not.
Me and my bandmate having known each other and worked together for so long, the process between us is kind of effortless. We've both played in other bands and recorded things outside of Foxygen, but there's something about what happens between our personalities when we make music that works. Also, with it being just the two of us, we don't have the problems that other bands do. We don't have a bass player saying, "What about my parts?" We play all the instruments between us, and we don't really have much ego about that stuff.
Corey Taylor won't be mad at me saying, but I didn't think there'd be other bands. I thought we'd wear masks forever.
I think everyone's trying to come up together and bring up other bands along the way, and we've always been really blessed to have bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden take us under their wing and say nice things about us.
I named it that because more or less each person from the band used to play in other bands and when we left respective bands other members from those bands all sort of changed round. It was a big sort of move thing. I got it from that, I suppose.
It's a trip now that other bands are saying that they look up to us. In my mind, I'm still 18 years old trying to emulate Pantera in my bedroom.
I never understood bands saying Nirvana had anything to do with derailing their career. Maybe those bands didn't have the goods.
We were watching bands like the Ramones and Blondie and other bands beginning to ignite.
Imagine a music business where all the music press talked about, all day long, was cover bands of old rock and pop groups. Beatles cover bands, Rolling Stones cover bands, The Who cover bands, Led Zeppelin cover bands. Cover bands, cover bands, everywhere you go.
Other bands in Vegas hated us because we hadn't played shows and paid our dues. Publications called us out, saying we were just a put-together band, claiming we had ghostwriters. It made me so happy, the fact that everyone was hating on us so hard.
In the 80s there weren't so many bands around and nowadays there are a lot more bands around. I think sometimes there are too many bands. But there are a lot of interesting young bands around. They are not really playing the classic metal stuff, that's up to the old bands.
KISS has always been outside of the borders of what other bands can do. Not that some of these other bands wouldn't want to do it - the fact that they may snicker or look down their noses at what we do is more out of jealously than anything else.
I like to say that I do covers of my own songs. And I have about a dozen bands all over the world. That's no exaggeration. I have a South African band, an Australian band, Swedish bands, English bands, American bands. They're all notable musicians, too.
I've always been a fan first and foremost - obsessing over bands and seeking out bands, and spending hours and hours listening. When I played music, the scope of my fandom became more myopic; I was focusing on the bands we were touring with, or the bands on the label. And you're always positing yourself in relation to other bands. Since I haven't been playing, I feel a little less cynical. I'm able to seek out music and approach it strictly as a fan.
I think that there's a singular emotion that goes along with what the bands that we love mean to us. I feel like people feel represented by that in a way that you don't get from saying, 'Oh, I like this book' or 'I went to college here' or 'This is what my job is.'
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