I write for myself, and I write for my friends and people who I have a connection with. I try to give some dignity to peoples’ lifestyles that tend to be ignored. – Cass McCombs
People expect not just songwriters but all personalities to pontificate about their egos – they just wanna see someone talking about themselves constantly. I’m not interested in that. – Cass McCombs
I’ve always thought about myself as somewhat of a folk musician. I just write words. I don’t think I’m even a musician. I don’t play a lot of instruments, not really a soloist or anything. – Cass McCombs
I’m making music with my friends. It’s fun. It should be fun. You shouldn’t make music if it isn’t fun. – Cass McCombs
I grew up in the suburbs and was raised on rap radio, so it took me a long time to stumble upon the acoustic guitar as a resource for anything. – Cass McCombs
Sometimes I feel like I finish a song, and there’s another song that I have to write in response to that song. Each is like its own separate feeling, its own separate universe. – Cass McCombs
Thank God we don’t know a lot about Shakespeare or Moses or Homer or Lautreamont. These are the best guys we got, and their art is powerful because they’re mysterious. – Cass McCombs
A lot of people don’t know what it’s like to actually be hungry. I do. I’ve also slept on the streets. – Cass McCombs
When you play with great musicians, whether they’re schooled or self-taught, they keep you on your toes. It comes down to people’s personalities and individual energies. – Cass McCombs
I’ve always littered my songs with jokes. You might need to dig a little deeper to find the humor, but I would totally object to being some kind of distraught personality. I’ve never tried to attach myself to that. – Cass McCombs
I don’t need to control anything. Even with romantic partnerships, I don’t need to control anyone. – Cass McCombs
I don’t care much about politics. That kind of witchcraft I stay away from because people end up dead. I’d rather die for music. – Cass McCombs
I think I have some very meaningful relationships with people; we all do. At the same time, I recognize that everyone is following their own heart; there’s been people who have left my life, and I don’t have a problem with that. This is a transitory world; we’re all spirits just looking for love and finding it and holding on. – Cass McCombs
I don’t think music is my job – I don’t think about it that way, because I don’t really get paid. There’s no paycheck at the end; it’s more of a ‘whatever is left over’ kind of situation. – Cass McCombs
A baseball team is like a band. Because, conceptually, there are no heroes in baseball – there’s just the team. – Cass McCombs
I love songs because by nature they are concise; they sum up. I try to use as few words as possible. It’s usually funnier that way, anyway. – Cass McCombs
Even if I’m writing music, it’s with a lyric in mind, to communicate some kind of feeling. – Cass McCombs
