The tools are evolving, and people’s interests are evolving as well. So, suddenly people like to hear bands, people like Devendra Banhart or the xx, bands that make a kind of virtue of sloppiness.
BRIAN ENOCultural objects have no notable identity outside of that which we confer upon them. Their value is entirely a product of the interaction that we have with them.
More Brian Eno Quotes
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I felt extremely uncomfortable as the focal point, in the spotlight. I really like the behind the scenes role, because all my freedom is there.
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Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art.
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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.
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Lyrics are the only thing to do with music that haven’t been made easier technically.
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I hate the rock music tradition. I can’t bear it!
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The basis of computer work is predicated on the idea that only the brain makes decisions and only the index finger does the work.
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Set up a situation that presents you with something slightly beyond your reach.
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What happens with notation is that it reduces things to a language which isn’t necessarily appropriate to them. In the same way that words do, you get a much cruder version of what was actually intended.
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You either believe that people respond to authority, or that they respond to kindness and inclusion. I’m obviously in the latter camp. I think that people respond better to reward than punishment.
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Perhaps when music has been shouting for so long, a quieter voice seems attractive.
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In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.
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So, I try to make signs, graphically and visually, to say to people “Okay, this is this department of my work and this is this other department of my work.” And of course I’m very pleased if people like all of them, but I don’t want them to feel deceived at any point.
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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.
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One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.
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I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.
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Saying that cultural objects have value is like saying that telephones have conversations.
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My guitar only has five strings ’cause the top one broke and I decided not to put it back on: when I play chords I only play bar chords, and the top one always used to cut me there.
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One of the great breakthroughs of evolution theory is that you start with simple things and they will grow into complexity.
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I despise computers in many ways. I think they’re hopelessly underevolved and overrated.
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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.
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For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time.
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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.
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Let’s do something else.”And you always think “Oh my God I’ve never done anything at all like that before.” But, of course, in retrospect, and to an outsider, they’ll say, “Oh, yeah that’s typical Eno.
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American television really is pathetic.
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I often work by avoidance.
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I wanted quite the opposite of that. I wanted them to accent their styles, so that they pulled away.
BRIAN ENO