Latest Colin Meloy Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it. It has just as much power in creating a kind of perpendicular sentiment in the music, creating a nice friction that also plays up some of the tension in the song.

  Colin Meloy

  Song, Nice, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I'd rather have a strong career, playing and selling records to a loyal audience, then having one record that exploded. That would be devastating.

  Colin Meloy

  Strong, Loyal, Selling

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Early on I was a lot more unsure of myself on stage. When our band The Decemberists was getting bigger audiences I was more concerned about alienating them, so I wasn't as willing to take risks and do weird stuff on stage. But once you get more accustomed to it you tend to have more fun with it and not worry about being pilloried for acting out. Whenever you play in front of 400 or 500 more people than you're used to it's always a weird, transitional period.

  Colin Meloy

  Fun, People, Worry

  Source: www.avclub.com

• There's a little less pressure in doing a solo tour, in some ways a simpler setup. A little bit more relaxed. But then also there's also - doing the big tours is exciting, because you get to put on the big show and everything. But I don't know if I would prefer one over the other. I guess it's no secret that I just don't like touring in general, but it's sort of the reality of the business these days.

  Colin Meloy

  Reality, Secret, Exciting

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Prog-rock and concept records and some ambitious projects were kind of anathema post-punk. They were destroyed with the advent of punk rock. You don't necessarily need to have a degree in music composition to play in a rock band anymore, which is a great thing.

  Colin Meloy

  Ambitious, Kind, Advent

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Living in war, and being a wartime band, I don't think there's any way that can't somehow influence the songwriting.

  Colin Meloy

  War, Thinking, Band

  Source: pitchfork.com

• One thing about hanging out with a baby is that you can remember a little bit better what it was like to be a kid, and all the mystery that came along with it.

  Colin Meloy

  Baby, Kids, Littles

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I like all sorts of things, not necessarily just Victorian. Even though I tend to read a lot of Victorian novels, I like a lot of contemporary stuff.

  Colin Meloy

  Stuff, Novel, Contemporary

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I was in school for literature, and read so many 19th century and early 20th century novels that it was hard to break out of that and read an average Jeanette Winterson book or something.

  Colin Meloy

  Book, School, Average

  Source: pitchfork.com

• You can't really come into a concept record objectively, because you immediately associate it with Yes, stuff from the 1970s that punk rock kicked against, the pretentiousness.

  Colin Meloy

  Rocks, Stuff, Records

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Pop music has always adopted the style of marrying upbeat melodies to dour lyrics.

  Colin Meloy

  Style, Upbeat, Pops

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I wish I had a better range, but I really have a super-limited one. Barely a tenor, dips into baritone - that's about it.

  Colin Meloy

  Wish, Dip, Range

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it.

  Colin Meloy

  Song, Thinking, Should

  Source: pitchfork.com

• If Broadway musicals were as popular as they were in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, then people like Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine would be writing for Broadway, which would be amazing. As it stands, it's the worst stuff that's mired in pop music.

  Colin Meloy

  Writing, Wine, Iron

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• The jam stuff doesn't appeal to me in general. My newfound love for the Dead came from Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia's songwriting, not the elaborate guitar solos. I'm a song person. Once it starts to break out of that structure and become loopy, it's uninteresting to me.

  Colin Meloy

  Song, Guitar, Stuff

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• It was a nice relief to be able to work on individual songs.

  Colin Meloy

  Song, Nice, Relief

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• I have a conflicted relationship with musicals, because I think the music itself can be so horrendous. It's an industry that relies on appealing to a mainstream culture in order to survive.

  Colin Meloy

  Thinking, Order, Mainstream Culture

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• I pretty much draw the line when people want you to do original music for commercials.

  Colin Meloy

  People, Lines, Want

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• When you get respect from the people who are buying your music and coming to your shows, there's an expectation that you have to live up to your own standards.

  Colin Meloy

  People, Expectations, Buying

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• It's hard for us to talk about how we disdain file-sharing when in fact it probably has been a great resource for us.

  Colin Meloy

  Facts, Resources, Files

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• Music has been already devalued by the consumer. There's an expectation that it should be free so the race to the bottom has already been won.

  Colin Meloy

  Race, Expectations, Should

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.

• When everybody is playing at the same level, there's so much more noise. And there's less incentive for the people who should be rising above that noise to take time and invest in what they're doing. It just becomes about hustling and grabbing attention.

  Colin Meloy

  People, Hustle, Attention

  "The Decemberists' Colin Meloy". Interview with Larry Fitzmaurice, pitchfork.com. February 14, 2011.