I wanted to use the studio like a microscope for sound, which is what good engineers do.
BRIAN ENOI wanted quite the opposite of that. I wanted them to accent their styles, so that they pulled away.
More Brian Eno Quotes
-
-
When you look back on a historical period of music, it seems so obvious to you what the characteristics of it are, but they’re not obvious at the time. So, when I look back at my own work.
BRIAN ENO -
I don’t like headphones very much, and I rarely listen to music on headphones.
BRIAN ENO -
I thought it was magic to be able to catch something identically on tape and then be able to play around with it, run it backwards; I thought that was great for years.
BRIAN ENO -
Everybody is entertained to death.
BRIAN ENO -
When I was working with Talking Heads what would happen typically is that they would go out and start playing a track, and I would always run the tape.
BRIAN ENO -
Lyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven’t been made easier technically.
BRIAN ENO -
Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while.
BRIAN ENO -
Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art.
BRIAN ENO -
Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.
BRIAN ENO -
Admirers can be a tremendous force for conservatism.
BRIAN ENO -
Not many people bought Velvet Underground LPs, but those who did, started a band.
BRIAN ENO -
For me it’s always contingent on getting a sound-the sound always suggests what kind of melody it should be. So it’s always sound first and then the line afterwards.
BRIAN ENO -
In fact, quite a lot of what I do has to do with sound texture, and, you can’t notate that. You can’t notate the sound of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” There’s no way of writing that down. That’s because musical notation arose at a time when sound textures were limited.
BRIAN ENO -
The time I like listening to music most on headphones is, I have a game I play with my brother, he’s a musician as well.And he sends me MIDI files of keyboard pieces. So, these are pieces where I just get a MIDI file.
BRIAN ENO -
People in the arts often want to aim for the biggest, most obvious target, and hit it smack in the bull’s eye.
BRIAN ENO -
Music in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others.
BRIAN ENO -
Saying that cultural objects have value is like saying that telephones have conversations.
BRIAN ENO -
People do dismiss ambient music, don’t they? They call it ‘easy listening,’ as if to suggest that it should be hard to listen to.
BRIAN ENO -
Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.
BRIAN ENO -
Something I’ve realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we’re smart about it.
BRIAN ENO -
The basis of computer work is predicated on the idea that only the brain makes decisions and only the index finger does the work.
BRIAN ENO -
I’ve always thought that art is a lie, an interesting lie. And I’ll sort of listen to the “lie” and try to imagine the world which makes that lie true…what that world must be like, and what would have to happen for us to get from this world to that one.
BRIAN ENO -
I prefer to shoot the arrow, then paint the target around it. You make the niches in which you finally reside.
BRIAN ENO -
In my normal life I’m a very unadventurous person.
BRIAN ENO -
Given the chance, i’ll die like a baby, on some faraway beach, when the season’s over.
BRIAN ENO -
Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.
BRIAN ENO