Cass McCombs Quotes

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.

It's the stupidest thing of all time, going on tour. It deteriorates the soul, but it's fun.

I don't need to control anything. Even with romantic partnerships, I don't need to control anyone.

I do like the word timeless. That's a great word.

I wouldn't claim to know what another person is thinking. I can imagine it, but it's my interpretation, and I try to make that clear. It's my vision of what I think their life is. I don't think there are empirical truths in that regard.

When you're playing festivals, you only get a half-hour. It's like a meat market. You don't get to be artistic. You don't get to play music. It's called a showcase for a reason.

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

As it turns out, it's really expensive to make movies, much more than records.

If you've ever sang in falsetto, you know that your throat is between your voice and your mouth. In a standard voice, you sing from your belly. And when you sing in a falsetto, you're blocking that. It gives it a filter. It gives it a character. It's less revealing.

This is rock'n'roll, not classical music. It's about people working together.

Once biographical information contaminates your consciousness, it's impossible to erase it and look at someone's work the same way again.

I think a master craftsman is someone who is unpretentious. He has a physical object in front of him and, while he works with a higher aim, he doesn't let his personality get in the way of his art. It's simply about the task at hand and to make it as functional and necessary to the world as he can.

The writing of the record didn't take long, because I just have a huge stack of papers and I just pluck from the stack. It took a long time because it's very expensive to make records; in fact, I think it's a complete rip-off.

I grew up in the suburbs and was raised on rap radio, so it took me a long time to stumble upon the acoustic guitar as a resource for anything.

I miss working. It's real, you know? But I don't know anything but songwriting, and I don't even know that. I didn't go to school; the only thing I know how to do is this. The only thing that I know is that I know nothing.

I just like writing lyrics. I find a little satisfaction in performing live, making records. But primarily, I just try to write every day.

I think I like singing when I'm singing live. It's just in the studio when it's a drag.

Opinions only carry weight in the second or third person.

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

If it's possible to have an enemy without making it personal or moral, then that's what I'm trying to do.

It doesn't mean that I'm overly enthusiastic about much music. Except the people that really touch me. It has to touch me, it has to grab a hold of me, I'm not looking for anything in particular.

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.

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.

People just wanna see someone talking about themselves constantly. I'm not interested in that.

As long as there are a few people there, I can lose myself, which is the ultimate goal. And that's happening more and more; the non-musical world is becoming less and less interesting to me.

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

When I'm trying to write a song for someone else, you can only see anything through your own eyes.

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

I love songs because by nature they are concise; they sum up. I try to use as few words as possible. It's usually funnier that way, anyway.

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

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.

I don't think anyone knows anything and I don't trust people who say that they do. Don't give me a plan, give me action.

I don't think music is my job - I don't think about it that way, because I don't really get paid. There's no paycheck at the end; it's more of a 'whatever is left over' kind of situation.

It's not like that when you're a songwriter - songwriters aren't like pulp writers or journalists, even. You just follow the muse. It's called muse-ic. Whenever the muse decides to bestow her inspiration on the songwriter, then the song is born.

I'm not trying to write for the masses. I don't care.

I think I prefer singing in falsetto. I like the way it sounds. It doesn't sound like my natural voice. It sounds like a character.

I hate my voice. I've never been comfortable singing.

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

I don't like going to the studio. It just seems too cold. There's no crowd to react to, or share anything with; it's just talking into a microphone that's going into a computer.

I don't have a problem doing interviews. It's not punishment. There's things about it that I don't like. No one else is really saying these kinds of things, so someone has to. I don't think that it's the most humbled thing to talk about yourself for hours and hours and hours.

I don't live anywhere, so that's what's fun about tours.

I don't really write for an album. I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me. It's all a complete accident.

I want to make something that's useful to someone, somewhere.

People take things a little too personal. I write these songs, and they're experiments with thoughts. That's it. I'm not a teacher.

Bringing the individual into it music only distracts from the universal and makes it trivial. And then it's easy to wash your hands of it because you might not be from their background, or you might disagree with their personal perspective. So you discount it and go back into your corner instead of coming out and engaging with everything.

With death comes a choice. And death is a choice.

Everyone wants to be well-loved and appreciated but, at the same time, there are some people that just don't want to be your friend, and there's nothing you can do or say to change that.

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