It’s totally different. I usually don’t tell people about the Pleased if they know me from the harp. And if they are there to see the Pleased, I usually don’t tell them about the harp. I am nervous that these people will expect something similar. – Joanna Newsom
I recorded harp first or singing first. I recorded it all together. Part of the reason is that I don’t know how to play the songs without also singing. I forget how they progress. I don’t think that any of them are verse, chorus, verse, and so on. They are not simple. – Joanna Newsom
I played piano for about two years when I was a kid. I didn’t play long enough to be really great. – Joanna Newsom
Lyrics are very different. There is a clear line between that and a poem. Something that has been a source of great excitement and delight for me is this idea that I get to rhyme. – Joanna Newsom
I give away CDs at shows if someone wants a CD but doesn’t have any money. I wouldn’t want to do that forever. – Joanna Newsom
I am not doing something that it is experimental music in relation to classical music. – Joanna Newsom
People are often afraid for me. They think that I am going to break. I can make it through a set. – Joanna Newsom
I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references. – Joanna Newsom
I definitely don’t subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated. – Joanna Newsom
I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music. – Joanna Newsom
I am consciously not trying to bring in World Music elements. The ways that I work and feel are completely different in how they sound than someone playing the Kora in Africa would play it. – Joanna Newsom
I can’t play my songs on the smaller harp. I have a Celtic harp. I can’t do the key changes. – Joanna Newsom
People in San Francisco and the East Bay have shown interest, done interviews, and have come to shows. I guess that the news travels fast out of this island that we are on. – Joanna Newsom
In high school, we studied a lot of poetical forms. I was really interested in the math that was involved and the strange live break ups. That gave me a great amount of respect for a rhymed stanza. – Joanna Newsom
