If I were to be really petulant, I would say New York is the one doing the betraying. Because the New York I fell in love with doesn’t really exist anymore.
Can’t do any work with a rock star; you have to go through their lawyers and their agents and their managers and you have to book them hotel rooms. When you work with your friends, you just call them up and they come over and you record and then you go out to see a movie.
Maybe it’s a form of overcompensation, but whenever I’ve toured, I’ve always needed a huge performance component.
I’ve experienced tons of failure. I’ve been making music for 30 years, and I’d say failure and success have happened in equal measure.
I remember I went to Berlin right after the Wall came down. I first went to East Berlin, and all the buildings were old and falling down, and now when you go back to Berlin, you know you’re in the East because all the buildings are brand new and very tall.
I like singing, but it’s certainly not my strong point.
Sometimes I love the marriage of art and commerce; I love Donna Summer; I like the Rolling Stones.
I don’t think of myself as a singer; I usually end up singing when I can’t find anyone better to sing, or when I’m too lazy to find someone better.
When you’re signed to a big label you’re always in the position of convincing them, especially now because labels are barely keeping the lights on, so getting them to spend a little bit of money is really hard.
I sort of use as my guiding principle that show The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Whenever possible, do the stupid thing.
The demise of the monolithic record industry has been, for a lot of people, really liberating and emancipating.
When I dj at big venues I try to play tracks that I would want to hear if I were e’d up in a field with 50,000 other people.
I love that vinyl is actually growing in popularity, and that there are so many great record stores.
I like my coffee like I like my romantic partners: cold and bitter and prone to giving me anxiety attacks.
Unfortunately I’m still straight. But who knows, life is complicated and maybe I’ll wake up gay tomorrow! Here’s hoping. And congratulations to everyone who lives in a place where they can marry the person they love, regardless of gender!
I honestly just love being in my studio working on music. That’s all the inspiration I need. And I don’t write with an end result in mind, I just write for the simple love of writing.
I’ve dated attractive people and I don’t find a correlation between amorous enthusiasm and beauty and public figure status.
I’ve been friends with madonna for ever. In fact she was at my 3rd solo performance in 1990, and there were only 10 people in the audience.
There’s no wrong way to meditate. And meditation should never be a difficult practice that leads to self criticism.
I know it’s simple, but my main inspiration is just my love of music. I know that sounds overly naive. But it’s true.