Many people work behind a music project, but hardly get recognised.

Making music with other people feeds spontaneity, and lends ideas to your solo work.

It's almost charity work, what people have done, turning other people on to my music.

I want to work on reaching out to people, through my music, at the grass-roots level.

I've worked with a lot of people on music and often times those things don't work out.

We work so hard to stay true to country music. People can say they don't like it, but they can't say it's not country.

I never wanted to be a feature - that was never the goal with my music. I didn't want to just live through other people's work.

I feel like I've been fighting in music and creating new ways and new opportunities to make things work even when people thought it wouldn't.

Whenever I work with people who are nonclassical artists, I kind of get a kick in the pants. I think, 'How can I apply what I do to their music?'

I like to work smart and make music that people want to hear - just finding ways to not get on people's nerves when I'm coming through their ears.

I don't want to work with directors who use music only to accentuate sound effects. I want to work with people who give music the value it deserves.

When I work with other people, I have to try to make their vision happen. With my own, I don't think about it. The music has its own kind of agency.

So, hopefully, us finding ways to constantly work, but always with a different product, will help our band play to more people and continue making music.

I try and approach other music with sensitivity. And, if it's music I don't know, I try and work with other people who are well-versed it in, so that it's done sensitively.

I work so I don't need to make rent through my songs, and I think if more people engaged with music without needing it to provide for their welfare, you're not beholden to anyone.

I know that the nice shines I have on is going to pass. The nice cars will pass. All that will stay is the music and the work. That's where I get the inspiration to help people out and work.

When I'm making the music, I feel like everything I throw out has to work. It counts. Because if you don't have people turning they neck all the way around to see what it is, it ain't stick on the wall.

A lot of people record on a laptop and use plug-ins, which might be OK for the kind of music that they're doing. But for the kind of music that I'm doing, that just doesn't work. I can't cut corners; everything has to be organic.

I like working with people who are passionate about what I'm doing. I'm super passionate about music, so I want to make sure my colleagues and people on my team are the same, as well. I'm a very hands-on artist, so I don't give my work to my team.

The first musical stuff I worked on was after the tour for 'Swing Lo Magellan' had ended and I didn't really know what else to do. I didn't know what music I would write. I just did work for other people - arranging, producing, writing - and all of that seemed to be in L.A.

I think a lot of people make a big misstep when they assume what an artist is going to be interested in, so I try to just take that out of the equation and make sure whenever I'm talking to people about their music, I'm getting all my context clues from that - and then we go to work.

I'm always weary of connotations. I don't want people to listen to the music I make presently because they liked my previous work, or to dismiss it because they didn't. I'm guilty of this as well - having preconceptions about other artists - but it's stupid because all music exists on its own and should be listened to with a clear head.

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