Quotes by Teddy Thompson - Page 1

I come from a place where there's a lot of musical families.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Musical
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The songs are definitely all about me. I am my favourite subject.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Favourite
Song
Subjects
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Most artists never get a chance to be Picasso, but that doesn't mean you would stop painting.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Chance
Artist
Mean
Painting
Picasso
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The state of radio is not great. It's like playing the lottery. The chances of hitting are mind boggling slim.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Hitting
Lottery
Mind
Radio
Slim
Chances
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I love the sad songs with their maudlin, self-deprecating, almost funny lyrics. As an Englishman, they make a lot of sense.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Englishmen
Self
Self Deprecating
Song
Funny Love Sad
Englishman
Maudlin
Sad Songs
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I'm never worried about being upstaged. I love to have the best, most individual people come in and see if we hit on something.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Individual
People
Worried
Love Best People
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Even for the people in the business who are real music lovers it's really about putting things in the right boxes, and my style doesn't fit into a box.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Boxes
Lovers
People
Real
Style
Business Music People
Box
For The People
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To say how you would react if you were really storming the charts and had people running around after you... who's to say how any of us would deal with that.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Charts
React
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I do think it's probably true to a certain extent that you tend to sing music that fits your voice. If you're Lou Reed, you're unlikely to become a country singer.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Country
Country Singer
Thinking
Unlikely
Voice
Music Your Voice
Reed
Certain Extent
Extent
Fits
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You just have to make sure you're writing about something that's true. It has to be honest and it has to have a real emotion behind it, regardless of where it's coming from.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Emotion
Real Emotion
Regardless
To Be Honest
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I don't try to stop myself from becoming too personal. I just put it all out there. If anything, I try to remind myself to be as honest as possible all the time. Why hold back?
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Honest
Trying
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Everyone's different, but it was fun for me to work with Garth Hudson. He's from 'The Band.' They are a massive influence, that was a big thrill. He's completely out of his mind.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Different
Fun
Massive
Mind
Thrill
Work Mind Me
Garth
Hudson
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People think unless you have loops and electronics and so on, you must be in your 50s. I quite like a lot of things that have loops and sequencers, but I couldn't really be bothered.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Bothered
Electronics
Loops
Unless
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For a long time I was trying to be poppier and younger. I didn't want to be on public radio or do any of that stuff for older people. Then I realized that that is exactly what I listen to.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Long
Older People
People
Public Radio
Trying
Time Long People
Exactly What
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Country music was the music I was brought up on. It's the music that's closest to my heart and the music that speaks to me the most, and it's always been a big influence on my own songwriting.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Closest
Country
Heart
Influence
Songwriting
Music Always Heart
Music Heart Me
Big Influence
Music Heart Always
Country Music
Speaks
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I think I'm too cynical for L.A. My sense of humor doesn't go down well here, which probably affects my love life. I need to have a laugh track following me around so people know I'm trying to be funny.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Humor
Following
Love Life
People
Sense Of Humor
Thinking
Track
Life Funny Love
Affects
Laugh Track
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My understanding of this life is that you tour and play for years and years, have some longevity and a steady career. That may sound boring, but I always thought that was less depressing than being a one-hit wonder.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Depressing
Longevity
Steady
Wonder
One-Hit
Tour
Years And Years
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I came from a folk-family background. Although we weren't really the all-singing, all-dancing-around-the-piano folkies or anything like that, there is that idea of singing and playing with your parents and your family and your cousins.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Cousin
Family Background
Ideas
Piano
Background
Family Your Parents
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My career could've been anything, I just wasn't that good at other things. I'd say it was fairly easy starting out as I did in LA, meeting some great friends and musicians and landing a record deal. That's where the hard work began though.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Great Friend
Hard Work
Musician
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I went to a boarding school when I was 13, and it was a very arty school, so there was an opportunity for a lot more. I joined a band and so on. We would do concerts at school, and I would play cover tunes and thought, 'This is really great.'
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Opportunity
Concerts
Play
School
Tunes
Arty
Boarding
Boarding School
Cover
Joined
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Internet radio stations like KCRW do take you everywhere, yet thats just one of a hundred small things you have to do to succeed. It used to be, if you just got on the cover of Rolling Stone and a spotlight on The Tonight Show, that was enough.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Rolling
Stones
Succeed
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Internet radio stations like KCRW do take you everywhere, yet that's just one of a hundred small things you have to do to succeed. It used to be, if you just got on the cover of 'Rolling Stone' and a spotlight on 'The Tonight Show,' that was enough.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Just One
Radio Stations
Rolling
Small Things
Spotlight
Succeed
Tonight
Cover
Rolling Stone
Stone
Tonight Show
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I like England more than I did when I left. It's become a bit of a better country in the last ten years, in the attitude of it. A bit more Americanized, which is both good and bad. At least when you order a cup of coffee they don't give you a hard time.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Attitude
Coffee
Good And Bad
Ten
Time Good Better
Americanized
Attitude Time Good
Cup
Hard Time
Ten Years
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I used to listen to my dad a lot as a way of trying to be close to him, as well, because my parents were divorced and I didnt spend that much time with him. I used to put head phones on and listen to my dad talk and sing and kind of had a weird bonding in a way.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Dad
Parent
Trying
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There's this bubblegum pop thing which is prevalent now that we haven't had before. People's ears are slightly de-tuned; they've been exposed to this weird synthetic, implausibly upbeat, Mickey Mouse stuff which I think is just weird; it's not really a human sound.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Ears
Exposed
Mickey
People
Sound
Synthetic
Thinking
Upbeat
Mickey Mouse
Mouse
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It's amazing that you can listen to any song and you can always tell when there's some substance beneath it and when there isn't. Even if it's poetically written and technically brilliant, I'd rather hear something that's all over the place but has some soul to it.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Brilliant
Substance
Beneath
Technically
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I still do lots of gigs where I'm the support act and people are chatting through my set, but I've got better at grabbing attention. I mean, my parents would play on bills with people like Judas Priest and get booed all the way through. But they stuck it out, got tough.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Bills
Chatting
Gigs
Grabbing
Judas
Judas Priest
Stuck
Better People Way
Priest
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I used to listen to my dad a lot as a way of trying to be close to him, as well, because my parents were divorced and I didn't spend that much time with him. And I used to put headphones on and listen to my dad talk and sing and I found that quite... bonding with him, in a weird way.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Bonding
Divorced
Headphones
Weird Way
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I'm a hybrid-genre person, which a lot of people find confusing. I grew up listening to American country music and rock n' roll made between 1955 and 1959. The Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry were my first musical loves and are still what I am most moved by. Roy Orbison came a little bit later.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Brother
Chuck
Confusing
Country
Musical
Rocks
Music I Am People
Berry
Brothers
Country Music
Music I Am Country
Loves
Roy
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I was obsessed with country music when I was a kid, and it's definitely had a huge influence on the way I write songs. I was always attracted to songs that had a brilliant pun or a clever turn of phrase, but came from a dark, bitter place. As a writer, I've always gravitated towards that feeling.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Brilliant
Clever
Country
Pun
Song
Music Always Way
Country Music
Music Country Way
Huge Influence
Phrase
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My goal when I started out was to get to the point where I could tour a lot and make a living, which means getting paid enough to hire my own band, travel and end up with a bit of money, but I'm still nowhere near that point. Because I didn't have a band and fan base when I started, I did everything backward.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Backward
Base
Nowhere
Fan Base
Hire
Near
Tour
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Any kind of creativity is not settling down into a happy little space. I don't try to be mellow or anything. I think I have quite... my voice is what it is, no matter what I'm singing, it's always going to sound like me. There's not too far I could go. I sound like myself. I hope that I haven't put any boundaries on anything.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Space
Boundaries
Creativity
Mellow
Settling
Thinking
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It's what is strange about doing a job that is also the thing you love, the thing you feel passionate about. People get to the point where they're burned out and disillusioned by the whole thing because when things aren't going well at work it also means they aren't going well in your heart, in your soul. They're all wrapped up together.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Jobs
Burned
Disillusioned
Heart
Mean
Strange
Love Work Heart
Wrapped
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I remember writing 'The One I Can't Have' at the kitchen table. I was looking at a picture of Truman Capote with Marilyn Monroe and that's where I started. It doesn't make any sense because he was gay, but it was just the idea of the short guy and the beautiful blonde out of his league. That's where I started, but very quickly it became about me.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Beautiful
Gay
Writing
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I vacillate between feeling grateful for what I have in such hard times for the music business and being frustrated that I haven't moved up more quickly. It can be dispiriting to play the same small clubs tour after tour. You think: "When am I going to get to theatres, maybe even arenas?" But maybe that's not on the cards for me, maybe I don't have a wide enough appeal. Most days, I am happy to have the best job in the world.
Teddy Thompson / Musician
Grateful
Hard Times
Thinking
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Teddy Thompson Quotes - Page 1

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