A Quote by Matthew Ramsey

We never really dreamed of being a band until it just naturally happened. All of a sudden, we were like, 'Maybe we should take this kind of seriously, because people seem to like it.'
Personally, the message that I would like to convey to everyone is just that life is really great and you can do whatever you want with it. That's what I feel like I've gotten out of my experience with the band, because I have done so many amazing things that I never thought I would get to do-and I don't really feel like I'm any more qualified than the next person. I feel like people should take their goals seriously and do exactly what they want, because they can.
The main reason we didn't break up is because we weren't really a college band. We were just, two dudes who were messing around with music. We never played off-campus except for once or twice. We never had any ambitions to make it as a band after college, or anything like that. So that probably worked in our favor. We never took anything seriously, we still don't!
When I was a teenager, I dreamed of being an opera singer like Maria Callas or a jazz singer like June Christy or Chris Connor, or approaching songs with the kind of mystical lethargy of Billie Holiday, or championing the downtrodden like Lotte Lenya. But I never dreamed of singing in a rock-and-roll band.
There were a lot of days when I thought maybe this isn't what I should be doing. There've been a lot of days where you get to the point where you're like, "I don't know if I've got the will to even do this." It's the type of game that doesn't let you walk away so that's what happened, I just kept coming back to it until something really happened for me.
People didn't really take white rappers seriously until Eminem, because he was better than everybody. Like female emcees, you need to be like Lauryn Hill or Nicki Minaj or killing everything before somebody takes you seriously.
We are just fans of music, we are not fans of a specific kind of music. We just happen to be a rock band. Until we explain ourselves, sometimes people don't understand why we limit ourselves to just being a rock band. It's because that is what we like doing.
Anything was better than going to work. All those early tours before we made any money were more like vacations. I don't think it was until 2001 that we pulled our heads out of the sand and were like, "What are we doing?" I don't think Chris realized he was in a band until 2001. He all of a sudden woke up one day and realized he was in a band. He thought he was just recording my solo project. Three albums later, we're in Baltimore trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.
All of a sudden I was Joan [Mad Man] and they're going, "Oh, so she plays a badass in this." And I'm like, "Oh my god, I get to play badasses." Firefly was a little bit of that, but she started out as a mouse and then she turned into a dragon. But I never really had that opportunity. So all of a sudden people were like, "Oh, do you feel like you're being typecast?" I would say, "No, this is just opening the doors." No one thought I could do it and someone finally trusted me to do it.
I think being named role models kind of happened just naturally, we never really asked for it. Which is lovely, I love the fact that girls look up to us and we empower people and inspire them.
I didn't make music until I was about 18. I'd been playing my whole life, but I wasn't putting it out because I didn't feel like people would take it seriously. I thought people would be like, 'It's just like sad girl music - it's like Taylor Swift.'
I get really worried, like if they say, 'Take vocal lessons,' or something because it's kind of like I used to really love to draw when I was a kid and then I took like an art class - because everyone said, 'Oh, you're so good, you should take a class and maybe you can be really good,' and then I went to the class and then they showed me how to use a ruler and perspective and all this stuff and it totally made me not want to do it at all.
Sometimes I catch myself if I'm shopping, and I'm like, 'I want to hide my thighs and my arms.' And then I kind of take a minute where I'm like, 'No, that's not really being kind to yourself. Maybe learn to embrace things that we're taught as women not to like.'
I never followed a band, I never followed a - nothing. I think maybe it's because my mom and dad were not like that, and it was just me and mom and dad. We were very close; we spent a lot of time just together, just enjoying each other's company.
I've never been one to learn scales and do exercises. Maybe I'm lazy, but I just don't take to that kind of thing. Learning other people's songs is enjoyable, and my fingers tend to go to new places because I'm not playing my music, the stuff that comes naturally to me.
I always felt second best. I was never the prettiest, never the skinniest, never the fastest in my sports. Never the smartest, because I have dyslexia. Then, all of a sudden, people were like, 'You're gorgeous.' And I was like, 'What?'
The Heartbreakers were what you imagine being in a band would be like - best buddies and great players and guys who took it all really seriously.
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