Best Stephen Malkmus Quotes & Sayings

I'm thinking, I'm singing like Ozzy Osbourne, but I don't sound like him enough, ever. — Stephen Malkmus

We're probably a couple of freaks who've created their own little universe, are living in our own little world and that's the only place where we can survive. — Stephen Malkmus

Well, yeah, I sang to some songs on the radio or in the shower. — Stephen Malkmus

There's something in life that's cool, it's relatively cheap, and fun, and populist. Even when it's elitist. — Stephen Malkmus

There's probably a certain confidence in your voice, or something, that is validated. You know what I mean? I'm just imagining if people didn't already say that you were cool, that you'd [have] more doubt in what you're doing. That's not so conscious, but that's part of my cosmology now. — Stephen Malkmus

If you'd rather learn how to ride a horse or something, I would say do that. That'll keep you out of trouble. You would think a band would get you in trouble, but I think it's the opposite. — Stephen Malkmus

The word "down," is very musical. It just always comes. — Stephen Malkmus

Usually [the lyrics] go from one word to the next word - there's no finish line. The music was that way, too. — Stephen Malkmus

The best I do, if I'm just playing around and riffing in a fantasy world, and then I'll write something down. Hopefully I write it down. — Stephen Malkmus

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

I've lost my writing skills since college. I couldn't write a book. It would take a long time. — Stephen Malkmus

We're not on a desperate mission to write chart compatible stuff. — Stephen Malkmus

Lou Reed is something like a personal favorite of mine, but you could always put me into that drawer of singers who can't really sing, who speak their songs. — Stephen Malkmus

My wife says that I changed people's lives or ways of thinking and that I should always be proud and grateful. If I'm dismissive of what we do sometimes, a little bit, she's like, "I was a fan, you changed my life," or whatever. That's what she says. — Stephen Malkmus

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

Almost every band has somebody who's the main songwriter and who has a vision, a very clear idea of how a song should be. — Stephen Malkmus

I guess the majority of people who want to ban certain musicians are the ones who are so proud of everything America stands for. — Stephen Malkmus

I don't really know where the songs are coming from often. Many of the best things I made up were just off the top of my head. — Stephen Malkmus

If you want to be negative about the whole thing you can say all guitar bands after the Beatles were just a waste of time because the Beatles were the best. I think it's far better to give new records a try. — Stephen Malkmus

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

Family is the best. I can honestly say, it's a gift that is beyond making art. I didn't know that when I got into it. — Stephen Malkmus

Despite my own doubts of being marketable or crushworthy, my goal was to write a record of peppy pop songs, hopefully without annoying anybody. — Stephen Malkmus

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

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

But we're still rehearsing and planning to make a new album next year. We have some really good new songs that we've already been playing on that last tour that we just finished. — Stephen Malkmus

I still hate [the Eagles] ... . There's levels of evil in it to me. — Stephen Malkmus

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

I thought The Doors were the greatest band for a while. — Stephen Malkmus

That's why you go to a nice studio. You can get a magic take. You don't really have to do anything to it. — Stephen Malkmus

If a voice is just too nice, without an edge, it kinda all flows by. You forget it. You don't listen to the lyrics. — Stephen Malkmus

We [ Paverment] were definitely unafraid of playing wrong notes and singing wrong things. We could be fearlessly bad! — Stephen Malkmus

I don't know if you look back on your life and just see successes, but probably the first things that pop up are the regrets. — Stephen Malkmus

In the early '90s, it felt like there was space - there was like an empty feel. There was nobody really doing this. Maybe the Pixies were, a little bit. Their lyrics were also disjointed, more psychosexual or something. That's part of youth, too, maybe, that you just feel like you're doing something different. — Stephen Malkmus

I think it's just entertainment for people that are interested in the form. To sing along to and be psyched by. — Stephen Malkmus

Lyrics are back, maybe. It seems like there was a bit of an attitude that lyrics are not important. — Stephen Malkmus

When I see four young kids in a band, I think, That looks really fun, no matter how shitty they are. You develop your own thing, and get excited about your band name. It's all so harmless. — Stephen Malkmus

When a band means a lot to you, you build the fantasy more than the reality. Always. — Stephen Malkmus

It's hard to think back. I didn't even know I was going to do it, make actual records. But I was always making up songs, once I figured out that you could do it. I think it's pretty much the same, but there's less urge to get it moving out there. There was a time when it seemed like it was really super important to the audience and now it's just medium-important for people to like us. But that's okay. — Stephen Malkmus

Besides, going on tour and playing songs and arranging things, going to practice, it's all I know to be productive. — Stephen Malkmus

I did some writing. I was just taking the kids to school. I did a couple things and we did some tours. It was a lot of downtime. — Stephen Malkmus