For instance, I'm always fascinated to see whether, given the kind of fairly known and established form called popular music, whether there is some magic combination that nobody has hit upon before. Brian Eno More Quotes by Brian Eno More Quotes From Brian Eno Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. Brian Eno philosophicalphotographyart The trouble with New Age music is that there's no evil in it. Brian Eno troubleageevil Everything is an experiment until it has a deadline. That gives it a destination, context, and a reason. Brian Eno destinationreasongiving If something is good, you must torture it mercilessly until it is either dead or great. Brian Eno tortureifs Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about. Brian Eno music-ispeoplethinking The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band Brian Eno velvetalbumsband The dominant theory coming out of Hollywood is that peoples' attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and they need more stimulation. Brian Eno hollywoodattentionneeds When I was working with Talking Heads what would happen typically is that they would go out and start playing a track, and I would always run the tape. I always record everything, even a run through where you're trying to get in tune. That's a principle because sometimes when the situation isn't clear interesting things happen, and they are worth listening to again. Brian Eno trackrunninginteresting The point about working is not to produce great stuff all the time, but to remain ready for when you can. Brian Eno producereadystuff Set up a situation that presents you with something slightly beyond your reach. Brian Eno situation If there is a new fascism, it won't come from skinheads and punks; it will come from people who eat granola and think they know how the world should be. Brian Eno peopleworldthinking Whenever you listen to a piece of music, what you are actually doing is hearing the latest sentence in a very long story you’ve been listening to - all the pieces of music you’ve ever heard. Brian Eno storieslisteninglong Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research. Brian Eno englandresearchcountry The reason conservatives cohere and radicals fight: everyone agrees about fears, no one about visions. Brian Eno visionfightingreason My interest in making music has been to create something that does not exist that I would like to listen to. I wanted to hear music that had not yet happened, by putting together things that suggested a new thing which did not yet exist. Brian Eno interesttogetherdoe If you grow up in a very strong religion like Catholicism you certainly cultivate in yourself a certain taste for the intensity of ideas. Brian Eno growing-upstrongideas The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another. Brian Eno worldideasart You can hear the profile of a sound, in retrospect, so much more clearly than you did at the time. And I think one of the things that's going to be nauseatingly characteristic about so much music of now is its glossy production values and its griddedness, the tightness of the way everything is locked together. Brian Eno soundtogetherthinking The point about melody and beat and lyric is that they exist to engage you in a very particular way. They want to occupy your attention. Brian Eno wantattentionway Lyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven't been made easier technically. Brian Eno things-to-doeasiermade
