What I value most in new music today is strangeness, oddity. Passion. And humor. I listen to a lot of hip-hop because it combines so many things like that. Carrie Brownstein More Quotes by Carrie Brownstein More Quotes From Carrie Brownstein I feel like I live a pretty quiet life. I like to focus on work and friends, and I love being in nature. Carrie Brownstein nature work love life I think my sister loves being an observer more than I do. Carrie Brownstein more being think sister I'm such a big fan of 'The Bachelor.' Carrie Brownstein bachelor big-fan fan big I don't think I realized right away that I was switching from being a fan into being a performer. I've always tried to maintain that duality, because I think fandom is a way of being porous and curious, but it did feel like a step forward. Carrie Brownstein step feel think way Much of the music I remember from camp was unofficial: the songs a counselor would play for us on acoustic guitar or that an older camper would sing after telling us a tale of his hard-knock life. We couldn't get enough of 'One Tin Soldier' or 'Cat's in the Cradle.' Carrie Brownstein guitar music remember life My father wasn't just taciturn - it was like he didn't want to be heard. Carrie Brownstein just like want father In the high-stakes and elitist world of music collecting and fandom, we operate from an ab ovo perspective. The seed, the first incarnation - that is the most pure, the most lauded. Minutemen trumps Firehose, Throwing Muses beats Belly, Joy Division over New Order, Operation Ivy ruled Rancid, Undertones instead of That Petrol Emotion. Carrie Brownstein perspective music joy world I've been trying to immerse myself in the narratives of other people. I try to not isolate myself as much. It is really hard. People that are sensitive, you just feel too porous sometimes. There's this inertia that sets in, and it's hard to get out of bed. I think knowing that other people go through it is really reassuring. Carrie Brownstein feel myself you people When the band first started, it was so much about carving out some space for myself and our audience and our songs. Carrie Brownstein some myself band space I felt like power meant that you had to be engaged in a certain kind of struggle by force of movement and battle - and that's very exhausting. Now, power is more about certainty and stillness and realizing that the infrastructures that we gather around and worship are the least powerful things. Carrie Brownstein you battle power struggle When people grow up with a family characterized by chaos and uncertainty and fragility, you look for a substitution for that. Carrie Brownstein look you family people When real is gone, then there is no longer a litmus test for that which deviates from it. It's all real because it's all 'real.' Carrie Brownstein test because real gone I think alone time is good to know how to be alone with your own thoughts. I think it just helps you kind of be a better, more grounded person. Carrie Brownstein thoughts alone good time Nutty fans are fine with me, as I have no known nut allergy. In general, though, it's best to carry an EpiPen to deal with outbreaks of fan nuttiness. Carrie Brownstein best me fine fans I try, in the present, to not exalt the past because I think that's such a way of diminishing the present. And it's hard to live like that. Carrie Brownstein live think way past I think music took hold of me and captured my imagination at such a formative age that I ascribe a mysteriousness to it, and I exalt it and take it seriously in a way that I think has just permeated my life ever since. And I'm less interested in music that is novelty or jokey or ironic. Carrie Brownstein me music age life Writing isn't necessarily about what one knows but what one wants to know. Carrie Brownstein about know knows writing