A confident session musician will give you what you're looking for, bu they won't necessarily give you anything of themselves in the process.
A guru, to me, is a physical representation of your higher self.
A piece would start off in a rather melancholic place, but ultimately resolve in a feeling of celebration, so it lifts the spirit through the process of development.
Although I was pleased by the initial response to the record, I knew it couldn't be sustained-that level of commercial success.
Being in that centre spotlight, there were so many pressures at that level of success. So many people are dependent.
Brian Eno's early work certainly influenced me. We grew up listening to his music as teenagers.
Collecting art was something I did when younger. Ownership is far less important to me now.
Hatred? I tend to steer clear of that. It's not something I feel on a very powerful level.
I am suspicious of melody and tend to go with melodies that seep into the consciousness with repeated listening. Too much is made of melody in popular music.
I enjoy working alone, being able to make all those creative decisions.
I enjoy working under my own steam. Not too tolerant of people peering over my shoulder.
I felt a little bit under pressure to write. The sessions were a little difficult; we were searching for a sound for that particular album that separated it from the previous.
I had to go through a rather complex journey to find myself back at the same place.
I have to cut off all media. I don't indulge in listening to the radio. I don't have television. When I do tap into what's going on, I feel furious.
I just want the material to be out there, particularly my solo material.
I like to dress well, but don't indulge myself that often. I tend to live in the most comfortable of clothing when at home. Comfort is essential when working.
I listen to a little bit of world music right now, but most of my listening has been coming from that ground which is yet to be defined.
I realised, working with the band for so many years, there I was writing new material and not really knowing where I was heading with it.
I thought of moving to New Hampshire as a retreat. We were following a very spiritual path. It was previously an ashram, so it had all that energy about it.
I wanted to be able to have as much of a natural environment for my children as humanly possible.
I wanted to get into those difficult emotions. In life we try to restrain them. We don't allow ourselves to go too far with it because they feel dangerous.
I was able to come to Hinduism and embrace aspects of that culture because I had been through a period of Buddhist studies that freed me from the dogma of Christianity.
I was never at home in my hometown. Maybe that's why I experienced the world as a hostile place.
I was really done with the past. I was really happy to put it behind me and just focus on new work.
I'm generally nervous when I meet most people.
I'm not proud of the fact that I broke up the band when I did; I had no choice.
I'm not too good at small talk but love to get straight to what's real.
I'm obsessed with books.
I've been very slow to develop. I started very young, and very insecure, so I would hide behind personas. I was very slow to find my own voice.
In my work there's no room for sarcasm. There's very little room for irony.
It's a little intimidating to work with people you have such respect for.
It's important that the listener finds themselves in the work.
People are afraid to ask musicians to be involved in projects because they anticipate being turned down. Young artists hesitate before contacting me. People in my position don't get approached often enough.
Sometimes a little compromise isn't a bad thing. You don't need to be precious about it.
Success came kind of late to us. There were other forces pulling us in different directions. I didn't want to go on.
The essence of the work goes beyond my understanding of it.
The past 20 years of my work was mainly vocal work, and then I did a second compilation called Camphor, which was the instrumental work of the past 20 odd years.
There are holes, and if you don't recognize the holes in the picture, you're not being true to yourself.
There really is no loss. There is no linear journey. People talk about a spiritual path, but I like the Buddhist approach, that you've always been encouraged to question everything, to take nothing for granted.
There was quite a lot of fear to overcome before I could walk out into the world at large with the spirit of adventure.
There were times when I felt painfully alone. I have no community of friends in this part of the country. Every friendship I have outside of my children is long distance.
When you write a song, it's a song until you get into the rehearsal room. Then you get into the studio, into the details.
When you're working with a group, everybody's 100 percent committed to the outcome.
With every tour that I've done over the years, I've told myself it was the last.
Works tend to come fully formed. There isn't too much tampering once I've found the heart of a piece.
You do your best to create a strong piece of music. You're not too worried about the numbers involved in terms of how many people are going to relate to the work.
Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary.
You can share a link to this page with your friend!