A Quote by James Murphy

'Somebody's Calling Me' was written in my sleep, and the original was just the piano and the beat and the singing. — © James Murphy
'Somebody's Calling Me' was written in my sleep, and the original was just the piano and the beat and the singing.
I don't sleep. I wait. I sleep in cars and on couches. I sleep when I can, but when I can't sleep, I just don't, so I figure there's a higher calling keeping me on point that night.
Mom and sister played piano growing up; my grandma still plays piano in church. They always beat me over the head trying to get me to play piano, but I was more interested in riding dirt bikes and playing in the mud.
However, it [singing] wasn't until halfway through high school that it dawned on me that singing wasn't just a hobby, it was something I had a growing need for in my life, and that was about when I adopted the neglected guitar I found under our piano and started singing about all the things I could never say.
I haven´t written on piano since It Bites. You can tell my songs that I´ve written on piano with It Bites cause they all go like "wrooash", like Old Man And The Angel and Calling All The Heroes and songs like that. It all tends to happen very quickly, I get two thirds of the song within five minutes and then spend rest of the time trying to ruin it in my head, and then I go back to where I was from the beginning.
It was always acting, singing and dancing that I loved. Not the horror of performing on the piano in front of an assembled audience of quiet people. I'd forget the piece just before I went out to do the concerto, the panic was too great . This was not anything that gave me pleasure. This was fulfilling somebody else's dream.
If I was singing like somebody else, then it was almost like I was expressing myself like somebody else. So it was always a very original thing for me. It's my voice, it's my diary, it's the way I connect with people.
My original dream was to become a singer-songwriter, so I sent a video of myself playing the piano and singing to all the big agencies.
If you write a song, and you go into a restaurant, and there's a guy with a piano singing and he's playing piano, singing your song, or you hear it at a wedding or at an airport... it's fun!
My mother gave me a choice. She said, 'Would you like to take singing lessons or piano.' I'm glad I chose piano.
I sometimes write songs on the piano, even though I don't actually play the piano. I always hire someone to play for me whenever I decide to sing a song I have written on the piano. My song 'Rosa' is one.
On-stage, I definitely want to use my real self because I'm singing to people who believe in what I'm singing, and I believe in what I'm singing, but they shouldn't be fooled because we all have fake selves and it's in there somewhere. It's not pretending to hurt somebody; it's just something that comes out of me, from my experience.
Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice ?out there? calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice ?in here? calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.
My mom tells this story that even when I was in the womb, my father played the piano and she sang. So, before I officially got here, I was already surrounded by music. I also like the way my father explains it. When I was about 3-years old, in order to keep me quiet, my father would put me in the bassinet and either put on some music or play the piano. When he started playing, I got quiet and eventually went to sleep. He said by the time I turned 3, I just climbed up on the piano and started playing it with the attitude of I'm gonna play dis here piano.
I did it all, singing, the harp, piano. But I was so shy, I'd wake up at six to practice piano because I didn't want anyone to hear me play. But then I'd do a big show in school where everyone would see me, and that was actually alright.
Most of everything I've ever written actually was written on acoustic. 'Do You Feel' was written on electric. 'I'm in You' was written on piano.
I just found the piano so fascinating and wonderful, and I begged my parents to buy me one. In the end, they bought me a toy piano and eventually an upright piano, and I started lessons.
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