In college, I was a painter, and I had a strong interest in fashion. I just like this concept of being able to dream something, materialize it, play with it and design it for the sake of someone else and for the sake of the joy in your own heart. So it's kind of like art that you're unattached to. It's art that you give away freely and I liked that about fashion.
Melody GardotWhen someone tells you you're not going to walk again and you spend about a year and half on your back, your clothes don't mean much. I was in a robe every day, so I gave everything away - my whole wardrobe, down to the last dress. But at some point I woke up, maybe about four or five months after having done that that, and I thought, "You know what? I really want to try to wear high heels." That's why I wanted to learn to walk. It sounded really stupid but I just wanted to see. That to me was sort of definitive to who I was. So that was my goal.
Melody GardotI learned to play guitar on my lying back while I was bed-ridden. I only thought to record the songs because sometimes I would I couldn't remember what I had just done. Eventually I started singing, because I thought if I sang it that would help to remember even more. But I wasn't trying to sing. And then one day-this is really weird -I just wrote a song. It came out at a rapid rate and I recorded it and I listened back to it and was like "Wow, it's a tune."
Melody GardotI think that age is irrelevant. We're all pretty much spiritual beings - I consider myself to be about eighty-five. I feel like I'm ancient, like two thousand years old.
Melody GardotPeople always ask, "Why jazz?" and I'm like "Why not?" It's kind of like asking Seurat, "Why so many dots?" I imagine if you asked Bjork, "Why the Tibetan bells?" She'd probably be like "That's just what I heard." It's the same thing. This is just the way I see music.
Melody GardotIn college, I was a painter, and I had a strong interest in fashion. I just like this concept of being able to dream something, materialize it, play with it and design it for the sake of someone else and for the sake of the joy in your own heart. So it's kind of like art that you're unattached to. It's art that you give away freely and I liked that about fashion.
Melody GardotI'm a bad walker but I can dance tango. You know why? Put your hand up. Push on my fingertips and just hold it. In tango, your feet are free but the top of your body pushes, so if I feel like I'm gonna fall, my partner can catch me. So I walk with a stick but I can totally dance the tango. It's a romantic kind of thing.
Melody Gardot