A Quote by Robert Barry

I was also very interested in music. I used to hang out in jazz joints, you know, the Five Spot and so forth when I was, you know, a senior, really, when I was a little bit older. And I thought, well, maybe I could, you know, work with music. I can't play at all.
I think, you know, for someone who does play, let's say, old music or, you know, Baroque music or Renaissance music - and you know, and I do play a lot of that, obviously - engaging with new composers, engaging with young composers, is really exciting because it makes me look at people of the past in a very different way that they are also living, that there was a lot of subjectivity in the decisions that they were making.
I was brought up in a house with a lot of appreciation for music, all kinds of music, including jazz. But I never knew that it could really be a career. I didn't know any jazz singers. I never saw live jazz. I only heard these records.
You never know how it's going to work out. I thought I was ready for the next challenge when I left Melbourne, maybe I was a bit more mature and a bit older.
I listen to everything from, you know, Buddha Bar groove music to international music, Italian music, like Eros. I like very sexy, funky music like Maxwell, Angie Stone, R&B...In my CD player, I've probably got Maxwell, Beyonce, Enrique Iglesias, and kid music...maybe some AC/DC. I mean a little bit of everything. It depends on what I'm doing.
My music is not really complicated. It's not really complicated and it's not - I wouldn't say simple - but it's not too, like, looking forward. So actually, like, the sound I have now, maybe it's a little bit better than the one I had, or whatever, but I don't feel uncomfortable yet with my music, you know?
It's not talked about, but you know how girls, as you get older, your boobs sag? Well, as men get older, their balls hang lower. It's called SBH: Senior Ball Hang. I think that's God's way of making sure guys get to feel insecure too.
I don't really do acting. I've done a little bit - enough to know I'll stick to what I know. Music is my thing.
I have to put myself back in the audience's shoes and figure out what they would know and not know. But, there are also times when I do know what's coming up and I maybe need to hint at it, though not in a big way. It's a little bit of both. It's an interesting tightrope to walk.
I'm sad for younger bands that don't have a home that they know they can go to, like the twenty-five labels that used to be around that they know they can hang their hat and know that they'll give 'em three, four, five albums to develop.
The musicians that didn't know music could play the best blues. I know that I don't want no musicians who know all about music playin' for me.
When I was in London I found house music and techno, and I love that s - t. It's my go-to music. It's the closest for me to the old funk of James Brown and the repetitive dance music that I like from the soul music. I'd love to do a live album, like a little bit old school but still progressive, influenced maybe by more electronic music. I like everything, but I don't know anything about music. So it comes in to a lot of different ingredients.
I don't know why people call me a jazz singer, though I guess people associate me with jazz because I was raised in it, from way back. I'm not putting jazz down, but I'm not a jazz singer...I've recorded all kinds of music, but (to them) I'm either a jazz singer or a blues singer. I can't sing a blues โ€“ just a right-out blues โ€“ but I can put the blues in whatever I sing. I might sing 'Send In the Clowns' and I might stick a little bluesy part in it, or any song. What I want to do, music-wise, is all kinds of music that I like, and I like all kinds of music.
I think I managed to trick people a little bit into thinking I'm more arty by making creative, artistic, visual work and applying it to commercial music. Maybe. I don't know.
So, you know, there are a lot of the biggest records of the year. There's great music in hip-hop and jazz and, you know, and folk music.
In all the music I've done, what I'm really interested in above all else, and I'm not sure it's what one should be interested in, is the kind of - you know, people talk about work progressions, which doesn't really make sense with pop music because there is no progression, because there is no tonic, because there is no more tonality.
Obviously, matches and all that stuff takes its toll on your body and so forth. But as you get sort of a bit older, a bit wiser, and a bit more experienced, you know also how to handle it.
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