It's nicer of him than saying 'I'm going to continue testing.' But they are just tunnels in the mountain. You can seal them, but you can just open them back up.

Jeffrey Lewis

Categorized in : World

It's all easier said than done, and it isn't even easy to say. by Jeffrey Lewis

It's all easier said than done, and it isn't even easy to say.

easier done easy

The funny thing is that some reviews are published in magazines and websites that are seen by millions of people, and other reviews are in very small publications or less popular websites, and you just have to be lucky to have the good reviews land in places where more people see them, and bad reviews land in places where they will be less seen.

funny-things land people

What can you think when one review says "this album is brilliant, and all the songs flow into the utmost brilliant song 'The Upside-Down Cross'" then another review says "this album is brilliant, except for that horrible and pointless song 'The Upside-Down Cross'," and another review will say "Jeffrey really sounds confident and relaxed on this new album", the next reviewer says "Jeffrey sounds more depressed and awful than ever" - these totally contrasting reviews happen all the time!

awful song thinking

In the past, Koreans have mostly copied other countries' engines, and so there's been kind of a problem with quality and a real limit on what they could do with that.

quality real past

A lot more people will want to hear a 5-minute singing cartoon about Communism in China than will want to read that PhD thesis, and that's the power of it even if a lot of details will be missing - that's the reason something like that often has more impact on society.

impact missing people

I do feel pretty lucky that I'm not so great at playing and singing, it forces me to make sure I've really got something worth presenting because I can't rely on any kind of virtuosity to dazzle people with.

singing lucky people

When somebody asks me "What are your comic books about?" or "What are your songs about?" there is no answer and I feel like an idiot not having an answer, like I don't know what I am making. I really do know what I'm making, but it's not one thing, it's everything I like, and I see no reason to leave out any of that.

answers song book

If I like hardcore straight-edge punk music, gentle psychedelic folk music, gangster rap, indie-rock with a lot of guitar pedals, and I find inspiration from all these things in different songs of mine, shouldn't I be allowed to make any of this kind of music that I want? And it's the same for the comic books, why should I only make autobiographical stories? Or only political stories? Or only superhero stories? Or only comedy stories? I am a bit creatively desperate, when I sit with a pen and paper I am desperate for ANY idea that makes me excited, I don't care what kind of idea it is!

rap inspiration song

There are people who are great technical players like Eric Clapton, and there are people who are great intuitive songwriters like Daniel Johnston. There are sometimes people who are great at both the technique and the creativity, the two sides of the coin, maybe Jimi Hendrix.

two-sides creativity player

I realized I was not a great musical technician, if I was going to make anything interesting it would have to come from the creative side of me and not the craft side of me.

musical creative interesting

I prefer artists who are creative more than artists who are technical, I think everybody would agree with that.

creative artist thinking

About Jimi Hendrix - although his playing is at an uber-level, his voice is quite lo-fi and normal, like a regular person singing in the shower, and this makes his music much better than if he was just a technical player and singer.

uber voice player

I don't think talking about myself making songs is a very interesting topic, there are so many other more engaging things to think about and write about.

writing song thinking

Everybody has a direct view of the person "behind" the art, so there is going to be a certain amount of awareness of who is making songs. But I like paintings where you can see the brush-strokes.

I never felt like I had a surface image to rely on that people would like - I always felt like my music would not be very fancy music, my voice is not very fancy, there is nothing hiding me from the audience.

fancy voice people

I usually think of art as having a measurable content of nourishment, whether factual or emotional or whatever, and I try to make sure that whatever I do has as much nourishment as I can muster.

emotional art thinking

Unfortunately most easily-digested entertainment has as much actual content as a Spongebob Squarepants episode, so the trick is to try to fit actual nourishing content into enjoyable entertainment.

entertainment fit trying

To be entertaining and educational and enlightening, all at once,... by Jeffrey Lewis

To be entertaining and educational and enlightening, all at once, this is a good goal to have.

enlightening educational goal

A great artist can change society because of the entertaining and mesmerizing quality of his or her art.

mesmerizing quality art

I think the benefits are tremendous, and the power of accessibility in art is one of it's most explosive and insidious attributes.

benefits art thinking