I'm really happy to be a mom, and I'm proud of the phase I'm in.
Liz Phair
Lana Del Rey seems to be bothering everybody because she allegedly 'remade' herself from a folk singing, girl-next-door type into an electro-urban kitty cat on the prowl (of course I like her), and they feel she is inauthentic.
Guys don't really don't wanna hear if it's really smart, and women feel uncomfortable if you reveal stuff they're going to have to remember they did themselves.
The other day I was reading a blog and I linked over to Streisand's Web site, and it was amazing politically. She's so insightful and incisive. And she also says whatever she wants.
I always give the encore over to chaos, so people can yell out requests and I can hack my way through a song that I don't really know anymore.
It seems to me like the Internet allows you to break that structure a little bit. You know, here's your CD that's going into stores, here's your EP that you offer online, here's a subscription for songs you recorded on the road, here's your live stuff streaming.
All parents gush about what it's like to be a parent. I love it.
I try to see interviewing as performance art, and just take it as it comes.
Composing gives me a chance to work in multiple dimensions and helps me pare down my melodies into what is essential. Learning new skills has always energized me and scoring has opened up a world of sonic possibilities.
I am a feminist, and I define myself: Be yourself, because if you can get away with it, that is the ultimate feminist act.
Now, in music, it seems more like the popular crowd suppresses anyone who is different.
I mean, I kind of remember... I'm 36 now, so it's kind of hard for me to relate to what it was like when I was 25, or 24, but I do remember a period in time when that's how I defined who I was, by the music I listened to and the movies I went to.
The big news already broke. The file-sharing and all that stuff, it's a done deal. And I think figuring out how to make that a fair exchange for the people that make music is still an issue.
People hang their hopes on you fitting into their CD collection in way that they have made a space for, but I'm playing a longer game than that.
I've lost touch with a lot of that boutique-type music just because of my age, and raising my son and the multiple jobs I have at this point.
You're really creative when you're in an environment that you don't know how to handle. So collaborating was like that for me. I think that was one of the reasons why I knew I was gonna get a challenging reaction.
Everyone wants to get into soundtracks. Everyone wants to do songs here and there. But, I think they want it for different reasons. I think I'm just tumbling through my life, enjoying playing with everybody.
My career has been riddled with controversy, which I never fully understand.
I love scoring. Putting music to picture is a rewarding challenge and one that relies on interpretation of emotion - as in, what is the pivotal feeling in a scene and which character's point of view is driving it at any given moment?
I blend my green drink every morning. I also fix my son a full-on American breakfast with bacon and toast.
I don't always trust my own instincts. It would be nice if someone else would tell me what I should do with my life!
That's what music is to me. Like, stuff that I really like to play loud. And I've got my quiet CDs, too, that I listen to around the house, but if you can't go there, then... Everyone gets so upset with me, I can't win.
It was a source of shame for my family that I was in rock and roll, which is so blue-collar. It just isn't done. And I felt it, too.
My identity has everything to do with me and my instrument. It doesn't have to do with what production style I use, or how many people played on it, whether it's sparse or grandiose or whatever. And I'm social, frankly.
I don't know what the future holds. Anything is possible.
Yeah, I like to be the maker of the art. And I like and want the money. But I don't really dig being famous.
It's about the journey and the process. I do things because I love doing them, or trying them.
I mean, I think about it, but I don't design my record to get a certain public response.
I love stretching myself musically.
I prance around and dance by myself to hip-hop songs in the mirror.
I don't like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn't have. I don't represent anything.
I think good art happens on that edge between comfortable and in a lot of pain, you know what I mean?
I ended up becoming so self-conscious that my songs stopped being about my life and started being about what people thought of my music. And that was really bad.
I have that thrill-seeking mentality, so when people want to know why my incarnations keep changing, or why I'll do something different than I did before, it's that same impulse.
My nails are a disaster. If I play guitar when my nails are long, I just tear them off.
When I use the Internet, it's pretty much strictly for music. Checking out other people's web sites, what's going on, listening to music. It's pretty much a musical thing for me.
I remember even getting kicked out of a bar once because I was too loud and obnoxious.
When you love what you do, you're happy just doing it!
Like, I kind of developed my musical style in a vacuum. Even though I listen to a lot of stuff, the way I wrote was in my bedroom, really privately. It's still the way I write, actually.
So how does Liz Phair feel about Lana Del Rey? Well, as a recording artist, I've been hated, I've been ridiculed, and conversely, hailed as the second coming. All that matters in the end is that I've been heard.
I'm just out of touch with new music in general, and I only know about it if I'm hanging out with someone that knows about it, or I catch it on YouTube.
There's nothing wrong at all with women wanting to be women.
I just want to make music and make a living. I just have to find the means of doing that.
I don't think you can spend too much time as an artist believing what other people think.
Am I coasting on some early success? Yeah. It was a good lucky break for me. But I would rather earn my way back again than simply conform to what people are expecting.
I'm known for being annoyingly gender-focused. It's always been my platform.
I don't know why it surprises people that I surprise them.
Women artists need to break barriers in order for women's experience to be valuable.
I probably had some impact, because everyone keeps telling me that I did. I like to feel like I'm coming out with something to try to make room for other young women to make their art.
I am just like you and everyone else. I am trying to live my life as best I can.
