Soul Mining: A Musical Life

music never starts with just music. It starts with inspiration.

I suppose the moral of the story is that of resourcefulness.

The long road may make you sweat, but the short road will make you bleed.

Perhaps Neil Young’s theory could apply here—if it sounds dangerous, you’re on the right track.

You can frame your work with whatever you want, but the center must have soul.

I was hooked on work, and I realized something simple then: skill was an automatic ticket to any interesting scene. I made a decision that I would never ask for anything from the table, I would always bring something instead.

Dimension on a song relates to “depth of field.” As human beings we find comfort in depth: something that sounds far away is not an immediate danger; we are programmed to relax when prey is at a distance. Close sounds can be quiet and comforting, like the whispering of sweet nothings. A sweet nothing will still communicate over thunder, as long as

Note-keeping is a big part of what I do. There is nothing like being fully informed: knowledge equals ease of operation.

Innovation is costly—it eats away at your life, your time. It makes a mockery of you as you stand there with your pants down, as you make noises in the studio. It laughs at every failure and has no patience for dreams. I still suffer the blows of insecurity, as I get it all wrong twenty times, but on the twenty-first time I may get it right, and th