In England and Europe, we have this huge music called ambient – ambient techno, ambient house, ambient hip-hop, ambient this, ambient that.
If I tried to make a commercial album, it would be a complete flop. I have no idea what the world at large likes.
It must be quite mysterious to some people why I bother to carry on. Because, you know, I don’t sell that many records.
I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.
I thought it was magic to be able to catch something identically on tape and then be able to play around with it, run it backwards; I thought that was great for years.
In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.
Put out as much as you can. It doesn’t do anything sitting on a shelf.
I’m kind of an evangelical atheist.
The biology of purpose keeps my nose above the surface.
Even though I’m known as a pop musician, I have a seriousness about what I do.
I want to make things that put me in the position of innocence, that recreate the feeling of innocence in you.
Something I’ve realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we’re smart about it.
Given the chance, i’ll die like a baby, on some faraway beach, when the season’s over.
Of all the things you can now do, which do you choose to do?
Ideas reflect the moment, and so you have to use them. If you store ideas, they wither.
Listening to something is an act of surrender.
Culture is everything you don’t have to do.
A studio is an absolute labyrinth of possibilities – this is why records take so long to make because there are millions of permutations of things you can do. The most useful thing you can do is to get rid of some of those options before you start.
Reggie Watts is a most unusual talent: a huge vocal range, a natural musicality, and a sidesplitting wit. Is he a comedian? A singer? A performance artist? I’ve seen him a few times since then and I still can’t decide. Whatever, he ain’t like nobody else.
Painting, I think it’s like jazz.