Every band I knew or played with had flyers and properly-recorded demos and contacts; I couldn’t even get a gig. – Beck
It’s really hard for me to commit, one way or the other. I was just always creating and seeing what came out. – Beck
I sat out a few years because I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do next. So many things were changing in music and in culture, so it seemed like a good time to step back. – Beck
Sometimes things in life take a few years to digest, and they find their way into the work later on. Sometimes I’m writing about things from eight years ago-they just took a long time to distill and come out in the appropriate way. – Beck
In the past it seemed like I was making fun of rap a little bit. But it was more me making fun of myself, since I’m not technically a rapper, whatever that means. – Beck
If someone is making a judgment when they don’t have firsthand experience, it’s intolerant. How can you make a judgment on something you don’t know about? – Beck
Sea Change was so specific. From the beginning it was set what it was going to be. All the other ideas that I had at the time I had to put to the side. – Beck
When my nephew was 3 and 4, he would say the most genius things. He said, You’re hammer macho with FBI dogs. I thought it was just one of those great lines. – Beck
Growing up, a film was an action film or it was a comedy or it was romantic, but you don’t really see such stark lines between genres nowadays. – Beck
When you work with somebody for a long period of time, you develop a shorthand with everything. – Beck
There’s 40 or 50 songs that nobody’s heard that I’ve done in between albums. There’s a whole evolution from Midnite Vultures to Sea Change that’s never been released. – Beck
I’ve personally reached the point where the sound of MP3s are so uncompelling, because so much is lost in translation. – Beck
The cliche of what a rock star is – there’s something elitist about it. I never related to that. I’m an entertainer. I think of it as, you’re performing for people. It’s not a self-glorification thing. – Beck
I hear a lot of bad TV commercials that try to sound like Where It’s At. That pretty much turned me off from using the electric piano for a lot of years. – Beck
There’s some quality you get when you’re not totally comfortable. When you’re not doing what you’re used to, you could completely fall on your face. You could completely blow it. – Beck
