Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I remember Usher came up to me at Coachella once, and it's like, 'Are you sure you're talking to the right person? How do you even know what I look like? You're not supposed to know who I am.'
I know for an actual fact that the things I say or that my brothers say on the mic are valid for life. What we say, if you're smart you get it, if you're stupid, you learn about 3 years later.
I had a lot of problems in my life. I've been a sickly kid, I had a strange life. They said I could have been blind, handicapped, asthmatic, there were all kind of different problems about me.
I want to be creative in as many different environments as possible, whether it's doing film scores, writing for TV ads or video games - all sorts of stuff, as long as it requires writing music.
I actually really liked the music to the 'Friday the 13th' Nintendo game. I still listen to it all the time. I sampled it in a couple records, too. It's hypnotic and dark but also really pretty.
I do think your environment really plays into how you create. I lived in San Francisco for a bit, and I felt like I lived in the Matrix - so my music had that paranoid-of-the-outside sound to it.
Amsterdam must have more than a million people. But the only area where jazz is really profitable and successful in an economic sense is in Japan. That's because they haven't been exposed enough.
Cats be talkin', "Bobby I ain't feelin' ya." But I bet if I was peelin' your cap back with a two-shot Dillinger Hot lead released from my cylinder, You'd be talkin' 'bout, "Bobby I'm feelin' ya!"
I'm very much thinking in music most of the time, but I really would love to start filming because when I was a teenager, that was my big hobby and it was always fun for me to explore that world.
I was 10 years old when the Northridge quake happened, and I lived right in the area, so it was a traumatic thing for me. I'd never had anything like that happen before. It's always stuck with me.
I'm a miracle man, things happen which I don't plan, I've never planned anything. Whatsoever I do, I want it to be an instant action object, instant reaction subject. Instant input, instant output.
If you take 'Nothin' But a G Thang' by Dr Dre, that could also be an R&B record. 'Bonita Applebum' by A Tribe Called Quest could even be a jazz record. 'Bring Da Ruckus,' you gotta call it hip-hop.
Banging techno grooves from the one and only Ben Sims. Around the time of this was written he had that tribal/funky techno sound that rocked the dancefloor. He was a favorite then and still is now.
Virtual reality, to me, seems to have a number of different tiers. Entry-level-tier VR is this experience: on a phone, some simple head-tracking, and some quick and dirty, game-engine-quality stuff.
People buy a ticket to see your show, so from the moment I get onstage, I can have no insecurities, because they're already there. You have to get people to listen. If they listen, everything's cool.
Music is a job, but I figured out ways to get my mind into a place where I could be creative. I actually discovered meditation. It enabled me to clear my mind of all the drama and focus on the music.
I tell my sons, I say, if you're going somewhere, you don't have to wear a hoodie - we live in New York, so a hoodie and all that is all good. But sometimes, you know, button up your shirt. Clean up.
I have a good connection with people from America that come to my shows. It's more the American culture. I like the culture, so I want to spend more time there and make more friends and have some fun.
I ask people what piece they are on the chessboard. And some people say 'I'm the king' or 'I'm the knight.' And then they ask me what piece I am, and I say, 'I'm no piece. I take the position of God.'
I've never been one to want to be the center of attention and be put up on stages every night. That's just not really my personality. I'm comfortable with it now, but my real passion is being creative.
I always regret leaving home if I don't get at least four or five surfs in the week before I leave. I try to be in the water as much as possible before leaving, and it's the one thing I miss massively.
You're going to be way happier doing what you actually love and finding other people that love the same thing than doing something that other people love so you're just cooler and you have cool friends.
I get anxiety from a noise or some scuffling at the side of the stage. I hear stories all the time, from as minor as Dillon Francis getting smacked in the head with a flying beer can to Dimebag Darrell.
I had an idea when I was 18 or 19 to start tutoring people, like the way that people get tutored in saxophone or guitar, but for production. I really enjoyed it, but I don't have time for that any more.
Parenting is something that I got early, because when you grow up without a father being there, and you see a single mother struggle to feed the kids, you do not want to put your own blood through that.
I thought that Wu-Tang was the best sword style - the best sword-style of martial arts. And the tongue is like a sword. And so I say that we have the best lyrics, so, therefore, we are the Wu-Tang Clan.
A big reason I wanted to move [from North Carolina] to New York was to get rid of my car. But honestly, I miss just riding around the hood and having some friends get blunted and playing music for them.
Everybody's all up on the EDM bandwagon now, because it's, like, another viable conduit for traditional pop music to ride for a bit so they can get out of their little stagnant pool and make a dance hit.
I never liked to work because I don't want no one to be a slave. I want to be worked in my mind. Every thing that's going on, there's some big spirit behind me who send me to do the thing that I must do.
I could never be a control freak. If Wu-Tang is a dictatorship, how does every Wu-Tang member have their own contract, their own career, and have put out more albums without me than they've done with me?
That movie 'Hellraiser 2' - to me, that was the most evilest display of evil I've ever seen. I watched that movie ten times because I couldn't believe that each character became more evil than the other.
My stage name has always been 'Armin van Buuren.' When I really started DJ'ing professionally, I already had a few U.K. hits under my belt under the name 'Armin', so I couldn't really change that anymore.
If you live through defeat, you are not defeated. If you are beaten but acquire wisdom, you have won. Lose yourself to improve yourself. Only when we shed all self-definition do we find who we really are.
I think exclusivity is important in life. When you look at a hot pair of Jordans, not everybody got them - it's a limited run. You look at guitars. When Gibson made the robot guitar, it was a limited run.
Producers don't really have any authority because you are paid by the artist, and if they choose to ignore you, they can. Your power only hangs by the tiniest thread. If you pull it too hard it will snap.
We, as a people, we have a strong need to categorize everything. We put labels on everything and its a totally understandable need because we are animals and we need to understand order and where to fit in.
Love is mistranslated into sex, because sex is not an expression of love. Sex is an expression of physical activity. It can be an expression of love between two people in love, but it's a carnal expression.
What happens to a lot of artists in the music industry right now is the following: The music industry is plummeting real fast. So as the industry plummets, what happens is that there is no deals being made.
When I started producing, I was just making music under all different names. 'Black Afro.' 'Super Grandmaster.' 'Mister Bull.' Like, the most stupid, idiotic names. 'Afrojack' was one of those idiotic names.
I recommend everyone who DJs to do it as a hobby and make sure you have a day job or are going to school. Only 100 DJs in the world make a living doing this, by that I mean making a good, comfortable living.
We, as a people, we have a strong need to categorize everything. We put labels on everything and it's a totally understandable need because we are animals and we need to understand order and where to fit in.
For every album, I really try to make an album that you hopefully will listen to from the first track to the last track. I personally really like if there's a - maybe not a story, but there's a natural flow.
I had the whole 'Ghostbusters' toy set with the firehouse and the car and everything. Sometimes I'd use my grandpa's camera and make little stop-motion cartoons with those toys - I was definitely a weird kid.
I feel when I say I can do something and carry this opportunity to make movies, it's because I took the time to study it. A boxer can't just jump in the ring. You've got to practice and practice and practice.
I recommend everyone who DJ's to do it as a hobby and make sure you have a day job or are going to school. Only 100 DJ's in the world make a living doing this, by that I mean making a good, comfortable living.
If you really want to be a music producer, stop watching 'Friends' when you get home from school. Start trying to make music. If you're not going to try, then it's impossible. When you try, it's always possible.
If you keep eating McDonald's, you gonna get sick. You need a real home-cooked meal. And I knew that that would be healthier. And that's what Wu-Tang was: It was a home-cooked meal of hip-hop. Of the real people.
The thing I find frustrating about rock music is, how different can you make an acoustic drum kit sound, an electric guitar and vocals? It's very stuck, whereas with electronic music, new sounds are being created.
I'm my own artist, and I see artists as movies. No one should try to change them for anything. If you don't like it, you just don't follow it. And if you don't like a movie you don't watch it. Watch another movie.
I studied psychology for a couple of years as a personal hobby, so you start learning about people and listening to your intuition, like when you you're feeling that people are not being entirely straight with you.