I'd rather have a strong career, playing and selling records to a loyal audience, then having one record that exploded. That would be devastating.

Colin Meloy

Categorized in : Strong Loyal Selling

I have a conflicted relationship with musicals, because I think the music itself can be so horrendous. It's an industry that relies on appealing to a mainstream culture in order to survive.

mainstream-culture order thinking

One thing about hanging out with a baby is that you can remember a little bit better what it was like to be a kid, and all the mystery that came along with it.

littles baby kids

Living in war, and being a wartime band, I don't think there's any way that can't somehow influence the songwriting.

band war thinking

I was in school for literature, and read so many 19th century and early 20th century novels that it was hard to break out of that and read an average Jeanette Winterson book or something.

average book school

I like all sorts of things, not necessarily just Victorian. Even though I tend to read a lot of Victorian novels, I like a lot of contemporary stuff.

contemporary novel stuff

I wish I had a better range, but I really have a super-limited one. Barely a tenor, dips into baritone - that's about it.

dip range wish

Pop music has always adopted the style of marrying upbeat melodie... by Colin Meloy

Pop music has always adopted the style of marrying upbeat melodies to dour lyrics.

upbeat pops style

I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it.

should song thinking

The jam stuff doesn't appeal to me in general. My newfound love for the Dead came from Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia's songwriting, not the elaborate guitar solos. I'm a song person. Once it starts to break out of that structure and become loopy, it's uninteresting to me.

guitar stuff song

If Broadway musicals were as popular as they were in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, then people like Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine would be writing for Broadway, which would be amazing. As it stands, it's the worst stuff that's mired in pop music.

iron wine writing

It's hard for us to talk about how we disdain file-sharing when in fact it probably has been a great resource for us.

files resources facts

When everybody is playing at the same level, there's so much more noise. And there's less incentive for the people who should be rising above that noise to take time and invest in what they're doing. It just becomes about hustling and grabbing attention.

hustle attention people