That's the thing about inspiration, it just smacks you upside the head, you can't plan for it. It comes like a stranger in the night; you never know when it's going to come or leave, and you just have to deal with the in-between moments because there's nothing you can really do about it.

Cass McCombs

I was just a folk singer. I cut my teeth on the streets, you know.

Cass McCombs

teeth singers cutting

Lyrics are my racket; music is play - the fluff stuff.

Cass McCombs

racket play stuff

A baseball team is like a band. Because, conceptually, there are no heroes in baseball - there's just the team.

Cass McCombs

team baseball hero

I think it's worthwhile to expand your comfort level and just do something awful. I wasn't trying to make music for money.

Cass McCombs

comfort trying thinking

I'm making music with my friends. It's fun. It should be fun. You shouldn't make music if it isn't fun.

Cass McCombs

my-friends should fun

I've always littered my songs with jokes. You might need to dig a little deeper to find the humor, but I would totally object to being some kind of distraught personality. I've never tried to attach myself to that.

Cass McCombs

personality song needs

I don't think I'm a particularly somber human being.

Cass McCombs

somber humans thinking

Try to keep your mind. Try not to eat bad, try not to wake up with too bad of a hangover.

Cass McCombs

hangover mind trying

I don't care much about politics. That kind of witchcraft I stay away from because people end up dead. I'd rather die for music.

Cass McCombs

care kind people

I think I have some very meaningful relationships with people; we all do. At the same time, I recognize that everyone is following their own heart; there's been people who have left my life, and I don't have a problem with that. This is a transitory world; we're all spirits just looking for love and finding it and holding on.

Cass McCombs

heart meaningful thinking

I project love, music and love, and I pray for peace. A good song cuts straight to the heart; sometimes it doesn't need to be too many lines - of course, I do love a good story.

Cass McCombs

cutting heart song

All these biopics and biographies and people gossiping about so-and-so's drug abuse or who's sleeping with who, it's just a bunch of nonsense.

Cass McCombs

drug sleep people

I write for myself, and I write for my friends and people who I have a connection with. I try to give some dignity to peoples' lifestyles that tend to be ignored.

Cass McCombs

writing giving people

Folk art has never been much about politics; it's about action and utility.

Cass McCombs

folks action art

Even if I'm writing music, it's with a lyric in mind, to communicate some kind of feeling.

Cass McCombs

mind feelings writing

Thank god we don't know a lot about William Shakespeare or Moses or Homer or Lautréamont. These are the best guys we got, and their art is powerful because they're mysterious. Once biographical information contaminates your consciousness, it's impossible to erase it and look at someone's work the same way again.

Cass McCombs

guy powerful art

I wouldn't go into the studio if I didn't have a band who's ready, willing, and able.

Cass McCombs

ready band able

Musicians wake up and create a more loving community by creating heavier music.

Cass McCombs

creating musician community

Music is the marriage of the feelings of the living to the wisdom of the dead.

Cass McCombs

music-is feelings

Elvis Presley wore a Star of David and a cross around his neck and, when someone asked him about it, he said, "It makes me think." I love that quote. It's simple. It's beautiful. It's true.

Cass McCombs

simple beautiful thinking