I didn’t do anything. I don’t have an explanation, I don’t know why I wanted to write. I did some short stories at that time, but very infrequently. I quit my job just to quit. I didn’t quit my job to write fiction. I just didn’t want to work anymore
Yes, after I finished my primary school, I went to the Rock Academy. I was only there for one year. I wanted to focus on my own music instead of making music for the school. So, I quit and started my own label.
You're not just making music for your personal use no more, just making music for your homies around you; you're making music for people around the world. Kids in Alaska - like, you're making music for everybody. When I make music, I just think on a larger scale.
Everyone around me does music, so I just kind of knew. It wasn't some magical moment. There were loads of other things I wanted to do. I wanted to be a lawyer, for example, because I just love arguing, but it wasn't on the cards.
I realised some Lazio fans were making monkey noises whenever I touched the ball. It is impossible to know what you are supposed to do in this moment. There were times when I wanted to walk off the pitch to make a point, but then I told myself that this is exactly what they want.
When I started making music, I just wanted to be the producer who sang the hooks. I wanted to be Pharrell, honestly, the one who made the beats and was in the music video with the girls.
I just loved being in the gym. It was tough at times. Sometimes I wanted to quit, but I'm glad I stuck with it.
I just write songs, I make music, and I have several times over reinvented my life in order to keep making music and just make music all day. I don't know. It's just what I have to do.
I had taken some of my solo music into the record label. They didn't really care for the direction I was moving in and I found it really disheartening. They wanted a pop hit, which I understand in terms of making money. I get that. But what they were going to ask of me was something I wasn't prepared to deliver and I felt kind of trapped. I just stopped writing. I just stopped. It was stifling.
The urge to quit is strongest just before breakthroughs occur. Those are the times when it's most important to stay focused and committed. You will encounter the urge to quit many times. Get over it. Quitting is not an option; always be prepared to give it one more day.
I'm making music for people to have fun and party to. I'm also making real music as well. I'm making a lot of pop stuff. I'm definitely just making music for the consumer and the listeners. So shout out to all my fans.
We've always done things the way we wanted to. It's true that our experience affects some of our decision making, but that's a part of growing up and evolving as a band and as people. The first five or six years were really rough. We had no money. We were lost and crazy and made mistakes, but we learned a lot and suffered through tough times, and I think what we did reflected where we were and who we are.
There are musicians who want to make a living making music. There are listeners who want to listen to music. Complicating this relationship is a whole bunch of history: some of the music I want to listen to was made a while ago in a different economy. Some of the models of making a living making music are no longer valid but persist.
I think there's just been this "thing" that's developed, this way that we have of talking about our music that alienates people. And I fall into that too! I learned that in graduate school. You just talk about your music in a specific way, and that separates people from you. But some composers like that. Schoenberg liked that. He wanted to feel that he was making music for an elite few. That's fine for him, but I want to set myself free from that sort of attitude.
Looking back, I think we were very much a part of democratizing music, and we wanted to demystify the process of making music - to show it's a myth.
I'd be at someone's house or be up on the roof all day and I'd get lonely - stir crazy - and talk radio became this soothing voice in my life. But the idea that I was making $10 an hour and stacking drywall while these guys were making a few hundred thousand, and they were having a party, and there were Playmates and there were good times, I just couldn't imagine it.