You can change the world, but if no one's listening, it doesn't matter. Stephen Malkmus More Quotes by Stephen Malkmus More Quotes From Stephen Malkmus It's normally in the morning, just playing around. And I'm not saying everything I make is great, but that's what I do. I can't even remember how I wrote stuff. Stephen Malkmus stuffmorningremember I'm better when I'm an autodidact and things just come. Or you're just blessed. I'm not bragging or anything, it just comes to you. Stephen Malkmus braggingblessed I feel the most natural thing is for music to come that way because it's sort of like poetry. Though I do think with poets that I like, like Charles Olson or Ezra Pound, they were rewriting constantly, until the poem becomes a diamond.But with music I don't really feel that way. Stephen Malkmus rewritingwaythinking If you have no shame, and it’s your goal to get people into bed, how much higher could your success rate possibly be? Stephen Malkmus bedgoalpeople Every song has a different genesis, or feeling. Usually the lyrics, I don't really know what it's all about, I just kinda do it. I mean, there's a combination of, like you're saying, that kind of lyrics about commitment or vaguely relationship lyrics mixed with jokey 90s Beck-style non-sequiturs and stuff. Stephen Malkmus songmeancommitment Like the song "Stereo", to me that's like, kind of hip-hop in that slacker way. There's some slackerisms mixed in with that stuff, but it wasn't really conscious, I guess. When things would get more typical rock'n'roll that was my fallback to go to those kind of lyrics instead of the alternatives. Stephen Malkmus rockship-hopsong I hated it so much as a child. I just didn't like it when punk bands went metal, it really bothered me. It was happening left and right in the 1980s. It started I think with D.C. bands - G.I., Soul Side, they went metal. Right at that time, R.E.M. was coming out, these more kinda feminine bands, and I was more drawn to that than to go metal. And you remember MTV, with the bad metal. But even Metallica, it just wasn't my direction. Stephen Malkmus mtvchildrenthinking The earlier stuff is more like "this is happening to me," but now there are more songs that are accusatory or something, or more declaratory. I don't know where that voice comes from, like, "I've been down the road, we've been there and done that." That's sort of like a tougher style, or a less vulnerable style. Stephen Malkmus stylevoicesong Yeah, on the records, the guitars are made melodic, and I try to make it memorable. There's not much just wanking, to be honest - it's mostly melodic parts. I try not to play too many notes. It's just more instrumental music. It's a totally valid criticism if you don't like that kind of thing. It also is maybe a little anachronistic or unnecessary in a certain way. Stephen Malkmus guitarplaymemorable What we're doing now, it's usually more based on records that I've bought or a projection of what I can do well now and the inner dynamics of playing with the people I'm playing with, Janet Weiss and Joanna Bolme, what we come up with. What works for us doesn't, like, have that much relation to the past. Stephen Malkmus dynamicspeoplepast You know, the songs that are self-conscious or jerky, they are that way, but the other ones aren't, so that's a good thing. Some of the songs are Beck-jokey, but the others, they have heart in them. Stephen Malkmus selfheartsong If someone's really busy listening to other CDs, and worried about what's new and what's truly relevant for discourse now, maybe it isn't that interesting. To me it is, because I'm tuned into that and that's what I like, so it's interesting to me. It's all I can do. Stephen Malkmus listening-to-otherscdsinteresting I would just imagine there's a criticism for just about everything, if you want to take something down. No one's invincible. The Jicks are a work in progress and we don't think everything we do is the bee's knees or something, we're just trying our best to get turned on by what we're doing. Stephen Malkmus progresscriticismthinking When you do a cover it's a way to get attention clicking on something. At the Quiet Music Festival, The Jicks did this Nirvana song, very unrehearsed and not important, but then all the websites were like, "They covered Nirvana!" People like covers of famous people. Stephen Malkmus importantsongpeople I've been getting plenty off my chest. Sometimes I get too much off my chest and I regret it. Stephen Malkmus i-regretregretsometimes It's sort of irritating now - people always ask me, "You're a dad, and how's fatherhood?" If Bob Dylan or Neil Young had a kid, it didn't seem like it made them a different person. It didn't make you old right away. Stephen Malkmus dadkidspeople I'm just kind of a hippie. Age is not that relevant to the music. Stephen Malkmus kindhippieage I'm not a go-to-the-gym type guy. I've tried before. And I'm not a jogger. Stephen Malkmus guy We care if people like what we did. If you're just making records for yourself, why put them out and do all these interviews and do touring? I'm a huge music fan, and this is what I do with my artistic time. It's all I really do, except hang out with my family. I value human relationships, and it's a way for me to interact with the world and feel like I'm part of something. Stephen Malkmus carepeopleworld Berlin is just an affordable European city that's supposed to be cool. There's nothing too deep about it. Stephen Malkmus affordablebeing-cool
