Cass McCombs Quotes

#1. Making music and art is about expressing something that's universally human, maybe even beyond human, at best.

Cass McCombs

#2. I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me.

Cass McCombs

#3. A lot of religious texts make for good reading. That's why they hold up.

Cass McCombs

#4. I've always littered my songs with jokes. You might need to dig a little deeper to find the humor, but I would totally object to being some kind of distraught personality. I've never tried to attach myself to that.

Cass McCombs

#5. I'm making music with my friends. It's fun. It should be fun. You shouldn't make music if it isn't fun.

Cass McCombs

#6. I believe in littering. Waste should not be hidden, but seen.

Cass McCombs

#7. I've always thought about myself as somewhat of a folk musician. I just write words. I don't think I'm even a musician. I don't play a lot of instruments, not really a soloist or anything.

Cass McCombs

#8. Musicians wake up and create a more loving community by creating heavier music.

Cass McCombs

#9. Sometimes I feel like I finish a song, and there's another song that I have to write in response to that song. Each is like its own separate feeling, its own separate universe.

Cass McCombs

#10. You can't just explain a joke. Either it isn't funny, or the person just totally missed the punchline.

Cass McCombs

#11. Thank God we don't know a lot about Shakespeare or Moses or Homer or Lautreamont. These are the best guys we got, and their art is powerful because they're mysterious.

Cass McCombs

#12. I don't need to control anything. Even with romantic partnerships, I don't need to control anyone.

Cass McCombs

#13. As long as there are a few people there, I can lose myself, which is the ultimate goal. And that's happening more and more; the non-musical world is becoming less and less interesting to me.

Cass McCombs

#14. It's not my way to talk about my feelings. They're impudent to myself, so it wouldn't make any sense if I tried to explain them to anyone else. I've never been to therapy - not interested in it.

Cass McCombs

#15. I was just a folk singer. I cut my teeth on the streets, you know.

Cass McCombs

#16. I write for myself, and I write for my friends and people who I have a connection with. I try to give some dignity to peoples' lifestyles that tend to be ignored.

Cass McCombs

#17. When you play with great musicians, whether they're schooled or self-taught, they keep you on your toes. It comes down to people's personalities and individual energies.

Cass McCombs

#18. Folk art has never been much about politics; it's about action and utility.

Cass McCombs

#19. I don't think I'm a particularly somber human being.

Cass McCombs

#20. People expect not just songwriters but all personalities to pontificate about their egos - they just wanna see someone talking about themselves constantly. I'm not interested in that.

Cass McCombs

#21. I wouldn't go into the studio if I didn't have a band who's ready, willing, and able.

Cass McCombs

#22. Dead men always have the last laugh. They win. They're dead. You can't hurt their feelings anymore.

Cass McCombs

#23. It's hard to make out the difference between insults and bad advice.

Cass McCombs

#24. I don't think music is my job - I don't think about it that way, because I don't really get paid. There's no paycheck at the end; it's more of a 'whatever is left over' kind of situation.

Cass McCombs

#25. I project love, music and love, and I pray for peace. A good song cuts straight to the heart; sometimes it doesn't need to be too many lines - of course, I do love a good story.

Cass McCombs

#26. People take things a little too personal. I write these songs, and they're experiments with thoughts. That's it. I'm not a teacher.

Cass McCombs

#27. A baseball team is like a band. Because, conceptually, there are no heroes in baseball - there's just the team.

Cass McCombs

#28. A lot of people don't know what it's like to actually be hungry. I do. I've also slept on the streets.

Cass McCombs

#29. Opinions only carry weight in the second or third person.

Cass McCombs

#30. If it's possible to have an enemy without making it personal or moral, then that's what I'm trying to do.

Cass McCombs

#31. I have no idea what will become of my work in the future, the future folk will not be aware of our influence over them, as we are unaware of how our dead influence us.

Cass McCombs

#32. This is rock'n'roll, not classical music. It's about people working together.

Cass McCombs

#33. It's just a joy to be able to work with a lot of different musicians. When you play with great musicians, whether they're schooled or self-taught, they keep you on your toes.

Cass McCombs

#34. I don't care much about politics. That kind of witchcraft I stay away from because people end up dead. I'd rather die for music.

Cass McCombs

#35. When I was young, I used to go to Baha'i camp, and they taught me a lot about the equality of religions.

Cass McCombs

#36. I want to make something that's useful to someone, somewhere.

Cass McCombs

#37. Everyone wants to be well-loved and appreciated but, at the same time, there are some people that just don't want to be your friend, and there's nothing you can do or say to change that.

Cass McCombs

#38. Lyrics are my racket; music is play - the fluff stuff.

Cass McCombs

#39. I grew up in the suburbs and was raised on rap radio, so it took me a long time to stumble upon the acoustic guitar as a resource for anything.

Cass McCombs

#40. I've always been interested in an idea of boundless love - an impersonal, big love.

Cass McCombs

#41. Music is the marriage of the feelings of the living to the wisdom of the dead.

Cass McCombs

#42. Even if I'm writing music, it's with a lyric in mind, to communicate some kind of feeling.

Cass McCombs

#43. I love songs because by nature they are concise; they sum up. I try to use as few words as possible. It's usually funnier that way, anyway.

Cass McCombs

#44. Once biographical information contaminates your consciousness, it's impossible to erase it and look at someone's work the same way again.

Cass McCombs