good quotes

Death Cab for Cutie is (and probably always will be) one of my favorite bands. Their new album, Narrow Stairs, comes out in May and I can't wait. I recently got their DVD Drive Well, Sleep Carefully and, in it, they throw down a great quote that sort of epitomizes my feelings on being an artist of any sort who is paid for their services.













"I don't know if someone said it to us or someone in the band said it but someone once said that we put the 'punk' in 'punctual.' We have always been the most notoriously on-time band in rock and roll. Even early on we had to be at the club at least a half an hour before they said we needed to be there. Everything had to run according to some strange, phantom clock that seemed to be hanging over our heads all the time."

"Rock and roll just doesn't seem like rocket science. You say you're going to do one thing and you do it. You show up and you have a contractual agreement to perform and there just seem to be so many things that fall into place: If you hold up your end of the bargain, we'll hold up ours."

I like the way they put that thought...especially that last sentence. Being an artist isn't really all that big of a deal. We spin ourselves into a fury sometimes because we study "The Greats" like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Stravinsky, Britten, etc. so much that we've come to think being a good creator of any sort of art means massive innovation and an eventual grandiose idea of self-importance. It's my contention that good art comes through humility and hard work (a philosophy that I'll admit I'm not always good at adhering to).

I recently watched the documentary on Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (24 Preludes for a Fugue...throw it on your Netflix queue immediately) and gleaned this little beauty from him about writing from a humble place:










"They are not meant to be performed. You must not applaud them. The author must not bow during the applause. There's no need for that. This is natural breathing. More like intimate, but not entirely. It's like communication between two friends."

How about that? There's a reason this guy is famous the world over. I'm fairly certain he's not being literal but, rather, talking about how he feels a new work should be composed: from a place where applause is the furthest thing from your mind.

Speaking of which, I should probably start practicing what I'm preaching here. Time is running out to get that opera on track.