I don't think bands should feel compelled to speak out unless they actually have something to say. I think that's a big mistake, where you're turning into a coyote running off the edge of a cliff. Too often, people just feel like something is happening and they want to be part of this thing, and it's just, there's sort of a "me too!" and that's about it.

John Flansburgh

I wrote a thirty-second song that I couldn't finish for a year.

John Flansburgh

thirty song years

In an interview John [Linnell] said, 'At a certain point you just get tired of the way the other person breathes,' and I took that pretty hard because I, personally, am infatuated with the way John breathes.

John Flansburgh

tired interviews way

It's hard to tell a shallow person that they should care more about the feelings of the awkward and the alienated.

John Flansburgh

shallow-person awkward feelings

I feel like musicians have such a precarious place in the political discourse, because musicians are, sort of just by nature, people-pleasers.

John Flansburgh

musician political

Look, up in the sky! It's the sky!

John Flansburgh

look-up sky looks

Worlds going to hell anyway, have a good time.

John Flansburgh

hell good-times world

Have you heard Alanis Morisette trying to play the harmonica? She doesn't know how to play the harmonica. Well guess what, Alanis, I INVENTED the 'don't-know-how-to-play-harmonica-harmonica-solo.'

John Flansburgh

harmonicas play trying

I don't lose a lot of sleep worrying about aliens, but I think it seems possible that there's life forms beyond our solar system.

John Flansburgh

worry sleep thinking

That's what I call 'Guiliani Time', my friends. 'We've got a problem. Let's kill it.'

John Flansburgh

my-friends problem

There's so many simple things that can be done to change our carbon footprint, and to reduce our carbon footprint.

John Flansburgh

footprint done simple

I guess the revival of vinyl records is not helping the environmental problem. Although, in some ways, people don't throw records away - I mean, I still have records from when I was 5. So it doesn't seem quite so wasteful. But maybe I'm just lying to myself.

John Flansburgh

mean lying people

It sucks to think about, honestly, but when you really consider the resources that it takes to press vinyl records, or the amount of gas that it takes to tour, it's really quite scary.

John Flansburgh

vinyl scary thinking

I think that the most effective social protest that any artist can do would be things that come naturally and feel obvious. I think the Resist movement will continue among people who believe in science, who believe in rights for women, who believe in civil rights.

John Flansburgh

artist believe thinking

All rock music is fake news.

John Flansburgh

rock-music fake music-is

If you do believe in science, you really have to actually stand up and make a stand for it. You can't just say, the facts aren't in. Science is always looking for better explanations to everything, but that doesn't mean that when we get on a plane we don't know what's supposed to happen next. And if it doesn't go the way that it's planned, that's a big, big problem. The culture wars are very tricky and make me a little sad.

John Flansburgh

war mean believe

People love fact-based songs, which is a very funny idea.

John Flansburgh

song people

A lot of times I'll post things on Facebook, and the immediate response will be like, "Stick to the music!"

John Flansburgh

response

We want to be original. To express our most interesting stuff. But you don't see the word "original" come up very often to describe big bands. Our job isn't to pigeonhole ourselves or describe where we fit in. Our goal isn't to fit in. Our goal is to be free of all that stuff.

John Flansburgh

fit goal interesting

I think the biggest wrestling match-up I have is how to respond to the word "quirky." Or the alternate, "nerdy." Both are essentially benign to the reader, but if you're a writer just sort of involved in your creative process, they seem like very small motivations.

John Flansburgh

motivation wrestling thinking

This happened years and years ago, right as our videos were first being played on MTV. The interviewer said, "You guys are getting famous now. Are you going to be riding around in limousines, doing drugs, and sleeping with beautiful women?" And I was a precocious young man, and my snappy comeback to that cheerful question was, "We're willing to sleep with beautiful women." But no part of the question was in the article.

John Flansburgh

sleep beautiful men