Indie Rock Quotes

• Generally I try to read anything but indie rock journalism or anything about music at all, especially in the summer.

  Emily Haines

  Summer, Rocks, Trying

  "Taking Measurements: An Interview with Metric". Interview With Devon Powers, www.popmatters.com. October 12, 2004.

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• We create music to express ourselves and when the world relates, that's a beautiful thing. We're all trading off each other's culture, so no matter what lines you put--country indie rock, rap, we're all somehow gonna find a way to come together.

  Jay-Z

  Beautiful, Country, Rap

  "Jay-Z's 'Made In America' Commercial Airs During London Olympics" by Nadeska Alexis, www.mtv.com. July 28, 2012.

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• What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.

  Andrew Bird

  Rocks, Nails, Band

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• In indie rock, there's the phenomenon of: "Oh, this guy seems totally normal, but he's actually crazy." There's more of that out there than you'd think.

  Tom Scharpling

  Crazy, Thinking, Rocks

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Indie rock is very healthy, there's a lot of diversity and a lot of creativity, but it does not have the revolutionary spirit of the late-70s punk scene in regards to design and politics and fashion and stuff like that.

  Bruce Pavitt

  Fashion, Creativity, Rocks

  "Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman". Interview with Jason Crock, pitchfork.com. July 7, 2008.

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• I like the glamorous indie rock look, like The Libertines. But you know, without the heroin needle sticking out of my arm.

  Ed Westwick

  Rocks, Arms, Looks

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I've always found that whatever you say about indie rock, it is the most inclusive genre or title for anything. It doesn't pin you down too much, like other labels would. It's just newer, it has less baggage.

  Andrew Bird

  Rocks, Titles, Labels

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• A lot of the music I listen to is indie rock. It's not on the radio.

  Laura Bell Bundy

  Rocks, Radio

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• I played in rock bands in college and then right out of college I moved over to Europe and lived in Ireland for about four years playing in indie rock bands. I love and miss being in a band, I still am in a band but pursuing that as a career I definitely missed it but I felt like that ship had sailed.

  Bill Watterson

  College, Rocks, Years

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• I didn't grow up with indie rock - I mean, I listened to bands that are considered indie rock, but I think that term is dead and uninteresting.

  Justin Vernon

  Growing Up, Mean, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that.

  Justin Vernon

  Rocks, People, Worry

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• This indie rock stuff, I mean I like it, too - it pushes all my buttons: sex appeal, dissonance. It's emotive, disenchanted.

  Ketch Secor

  Sex, Mean, Rocks

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• You kind of have to be like " What have you been working the last five years for? Why are you complaining?" It's essentially me talking myself out of being a crybaby indie rock butthead.

  Mac DeMarco

  Rocks, Talking, Years

  Source: www.quipmag.com

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• I really do listen to all types of music, not only rock, but everything from good pop music - which is usually older pop music - to RB and indie rock. I love indie rock more than a lot of the commercial stuff that you'd expect.

  Amy Lee

  Rocks, Stuff, Type

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• To begin with, the key principle of American indie rock wasn't a circumscribed musical style; it was the punk ethos of DIY, or do-it-yourself.  The equation was simple:  If punk was rebellious and DIY was rebellious, then doing it yourself was punk.  'Punk was about more than just starting a band,' former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt once said, 'it was about starting a label, it was about touring, it was about taking control.  It was like songwriting; you just do it.  You want a record, you pay the pressing plant.  That's what it was all about.'

  Michael Azerrad

  Simple, Ethos, Keys

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• I put on the Hank Williams and the Patsy Cline and the Rosemary Clooney on vinyl - I'm not trying to be some cool indie-rock person, I just love the way it sounds - and throw on a T-shirt and jeans. In Texas, we practically come out of the womb in jeans.

  Kelly Clarkson

  Jeans, Rocks, Texas

  "Kelly Clarkson Covers Lucky Magazine August 2012, Talks Bandage Dresses". Lucky Magazine Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 03, 2012.

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• I was trained at classical piano as a youngster back in PA. To rebel, I bought a drum set and played in some rock & roll bands. In college I picked up a guitar and became obsessed with practicing which led to playing guitar in indie rock bands in the mid 90's. Which led me to Los Angeles.

  Jeff Cardoni

  College, Piano, Rocks

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• When I was a kid, you listened to a certain genre. Now it's like, "I love indie rock, I love hip-hop, jazz, funk." Also, we knew it couldn't be the same thing each year.

  Jonathan Rhys Meyers

  Kids, Rocks, Years

  "Superfly Co-Founders Jonathan Mayers & Richard Goodstone on Bonnaroo's Future and Teaming With Live Nation". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. June 8, 2015.

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• When I started out as a music journalist, at the end of the 1980s, it was generally assumed that we were living through the lamest music era the world would ever see. But those were also the years when hip-hop exploded, beatbox disco soared, indie rock took off, and new wave invented a language of teen angst.

  Rob Sheffield

  Rocks, Years, Hip Hop

  Rob Sheffield (2010). “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut”, p.11, Penguin

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• But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.

  Stephen Malkmus

  Real, Rocks, Band

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• I guess my music taste is pretty predictable: I like new indie rock stuff, older stuff.

  Aziz Ansari

  Rocks, Stuff, Taste

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• In the beginning I was just a makeup artist and I never really pictured myself doing anything else. But now that I have so many doors open, I kind of want to be that indie rock Paris Hilton - but with actual intelligence - she's just stupid.

  Jeffree Star

  Stupid, Artist, Makeup

  Source: substreammagazine.com

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• The second 'Postal Service' album is threatening to become the 'Chinese Democracy' of indie rock. It will come out eventually, or maybe it won't.

  Ben Gibbard

  Rocks, Chinese, Democracy

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• I do get the sense sometimes that if I draw things too nice, maybe I won't be indie-rock enough anymore.

  Bryan Lee O'Malley

  Nice, Rocks, Sometimes

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• In high school I was in a band called Goodfight, but it was more me running around on stage. It was very punk inspired. Then I started to get into indie-rock and older music and decided I wanted to write my own stuff. I quit the band. Around 16 or 17, I started recording myself at home on keyboard and piano.

  Angel Olsen

  Running, Home, Writing

  "Angel Olsen is in complete control". Interview with Chrissie Dickinson, www.chicagotribune.com. September 21, 2016.

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