I came into having an artist's career in this very sheepish and directionless way. It's hard to explain, but I was 18 years old and I was ready to go to college; that was the next step for me. Then suddenly I had a song that blew up... and I had this artist's career and I was on tour with these big names and I didn't know what I was doing.

Porter Robinson

Car Art Years

It's hard to regret making the choice that you think is right.

Porter Robinson

You Think Thin

I want my music to be really big. I have no interest in DIY Brooklyn; I don't want to be a small indie band.

Porter Robinson

Music Want Us

But to me, 'Worlds' is meant as kind of an appreciation of fiction and stories and escapism and fantasy.

Porter Robinson

Worlds World T

The thing that makes me want to proceed and finish a song is when it really touches me and makes me feel something.

Porter Robinson

Want Touch Thing

Virtual Self' was me trying to paint a picture of a very foggy, distorted memory that I had of electronic music on the internet.

Porter Robinson

Music Yin Virtual

Electronic music was this super cool thing to me my whole life.

Porter Robinson

Music Life Cool

My relationship with my brothers... it's almost weird. We've never fought, we finish each other's sentences, but not in a creepy way. We talk about the things that we love and share music with each other.

Porter Robinson

Relationship Music Love

An underexplored reason why nostalgic art is worthwhile is that it influences the way the past is remembered.

Porter Robinson

Art Worthwhile Worth

Virtual Self' combines a lot of unlike elements - trance, jungle, slowed-down breakbeats.

Porter Robinson

Men Wed Virtual

When I'm writing good music and I'm caffeinated, I attribute all my success to the coffee, get really sentimental about the EDM scene and tweet a lot.

Porter Robinson

Time Success Music

I had a lot of self-doubt when I started. And I still do. But I had a lot of the wrong kind of self-doubt when I first started making music and first started to tour. I think I was a little bit deferential.

Porter Robinson

Music Art Wrong

My most successful song was 'Language' and I think partly because it's a nice, dancey record, but I'll see people cry in the audience to that song, and that's so much more interesting to me than making someone just jump up and down.

Porter Robinson

Success Art Age

If an artist I liked disowned songs that meant a lot to me, I would be pretty hurt by that.

Porter Robinson

Art Would Tis

I think not having come from the DJ world was an asset to me at first because I didn't have some of the habits other DJs had, and I think in a way that set me apart.

Porter Robinson

Art World Way

I just want the truth about it, because if the reality is that electronic music festivals are significantly more dangerous than other festivals, then something should be done about it, and that warrants conversation.

Porter Robinson

War Truth Music

When I'm making sentimental trancey fluffiness, I like to have some equally saccharine aromas filling the room.

Porter Robinson

Time Men Trance

I'm mostly known for writing electro and aggressive bangery house music. But before I started making electro, and while I was making electro, this sort of gushy, make-the-ravers-cry sort of sentimentality is so important to me.

Porter Robinson

Time Music Men

I came into having an artist's career in this very sheepish and directionless way. It's hard to explain, but I was 18 years old and I was ready to go to college; that was the next step for me. Then suddenly I had a song that blew up... and I had this artist's career and I was on tour with these big names and I didn't know what I was doing.

Porter Robinson

Car Art Years

The one thing you can't control is what comes after what you release.

Porter Robinson

You Thing Thin

If I could turn it on like a faucet then I think it would be kind of unearned. I feel like you need to struggle a little bit to make anything good.

Porter Robinson

Good You Would

The DJ role, it's never been a big thing for me.

Porter Robinson

The warmest place I've ever been is my home here in Chapel Hill. It's an oasis of comfort and joy for me.

Porter Robinson

As much as early 2000s aesthetics are something I was pining for and very much love, I would occasionally struggle to find one singular image or one singular site that summed up all of my memories really well.

Porter Robinson

I was still on track to go UNC at Chapel Hill, I had no plans to be a musician. It wasn't even a goal of mine. Then I had this song that blew up and went viral and suddenly I found myself playing shows and having this music career.

Porter Robinson

EDM is very functional. It's meant to make people jump up and down and go crazy and it's real good at that. I just think in terms of expression, it's very very limiting.

Porter Robinson

I wanted to do music that was a little more sentimental, emotional, and serene - completely different from the party music I was doing.

Porter Robinson

Yeah, I've always wondered what it would be like to make music that's not nostalgic at all, and it's really, really hard for me to imagine.

Porter Robinson

So, the concept was a single-stage festival, and I open and close the festival to encourage people to stay for all of the other artists.

Porter Robinson

I think that my biggest influences are electronic acts. Daft Punk is probably my number 1, then Kanye West would be number 2 after that.

Porter Robinson

I like to shower for a really long time; that's a distraction-free zone for me.

Porter Robinson

I wanted what I was doing to be really true to me and my tastes. That's what 'Worlds' was, me taking a break from what I was doing and doing something that was honest, authentic and real.

Porter Robinson

I still play the songs I declared noncanonical.

Porter Robinson

For me, the early 2000s stood for this vast, magical, electronic cyber realm - a time when the internet was so infinite, mysterious, and under-explored.

Porter Robinson

I'm not a huge movie buff and I don't watch that much television, but I've spent most of my life playing video games of one kind or another.

Porter Robinson

I played video games for years. I immersed myself in them. They're so beautiful. They have these gorgeous imaginary landscapes. And they were just very dear to me.

Porter Robinson

I wanted 'Second Sky' to be my way of recommending truly good music to my audience that I think is worthy of their time.

Porter Robinson

There's so many things that can go wrong, and if I'm merely playing and not hosting a festival, none of those things reflect on me.

Porter Robinson

I wanted to have a grander vision, something that I felt like I was really fighting for and I wanted to have a real idea and be authentic.

Porter Robinson

I do want people to have a sense of just the extreme level of meticulousness and care that goes into everything. I wouldn't expect anybody to catch all the details of what I'm doing. The level of obsession is so extreme.

Porter Robinson

I was trying to write new music, but there was nothing I was reacting against. It turned out 'Worlds' itself became something for me to to resist.

Porter Robinson

My original goal was to get into the Top 100. I listened to every song in the Top 100 every day. I knew them all - this is where the gods reside.

Porter Robinson

Star Wars Galaxies' didn't ever explain itself to you. It was horribly broken; it was glitchy in several significant ways. It was just this vast, expansive, beautiful universe with all these crazy idiosyncrasies.

Porter Robinson

I wanted there to be something to fill the space and to catch the listener's ear, but I didn't want there to be any 'Virtual Self' songs that had a clearly defined vocal with lyrics and top line. If you do hear any lyrics, it's just your brain filling in the gap, because those moments are just various syllables combined.

Porter Robinson

It was more than enough, but I'm completely satisfied that 'Virtual Self' got nominated for the Grammy. That is a complete victory for the project in my mind and anything else is just bonus.

Porter Robinson

I've got a hundred thousand things on my mind that are taking precedence over trying to make pop collaborations.

Porter Robinson

It might be interesting to people to say that I would do something with Taylor Swift, but the reality is, it's so not on my list of things to do.

Porter Robinson

I think Skrillex working with Justin Bieber - some immature people will have a huge problem with that; I'm just saying I don't care.

Porter Robinson

There are a lot of people who wonder why Japan is a pretty consistent influence in my music, and I think it's because the reason I started writing - my intro to electronic music was Japanese music.

Porter Robinson

The anonymity of the internet has been completely abandoned - everything's so tied to your identity and sense of self now. It's hard for me to see that changing, but that's why I wrote a love letter to something that once was.

Porter Robinson

I love the idea of web design that maximises expressiveness over functionality.

Porter Robinson