Cliff Martinez Quotes

#1. I know so few people who actually give music their undivided attention, so I've been trying to just park myself on the couch between the speakers and listen.

Cliff Martinez

#2. I guess what I've learned is that there are no boundaries when it comes to imagination. It's limitless.

Cliff Martinez

#3. I've never tried to work chronologically. I don't think I have the discipline to do that.

Cliff Martinez

#4. I've often thought that my background in rock 'n' roll has gone to waste in film work. My background was that I was a rock 'n' roll drummer and I don't think I used drums in my first ten years of film scoring.

Cliff Martinez

#5. I'm free to make music - I'm sitting on about 40 or 45 new songs that I can't wait to put out.

Cliff Martinez

#6. I work at home but average 15,000 to 18,000 miles per year on my Honda.

Cliff Martinez

#7. I got fed up with being in bands. I spent a couple of years touring the country in a smoked filled band, doing lots of drugs and being really unhealthy.

Cliff Martinez

#8. I want to be known for having a recognizable style. I believe having your own personal identity is what makes you competitive. On the other hand, I would like to be versatile and be challenged to go in new directions.

Cliff Martinez

#9. It's very important that you never depend on money to fulfill your creative vision. If you do that, you're doomed to fail.

Cliff Martinez

#10. I'm not in a position in my career where I turn things down. I'm very easy. So the projects often dictate the direction you will go in. I welcome things that challenge me.

Cliff Martinez

#11. I've always been very left of center and the radio never had much diversity and film did.

Cliff Martinez

#12. I'm kind of an antisocial person. I realised when I was playing in bands that I wasn't that comfortable being on-stage, and I preferred to be behind-the-scenes. I like the seclusion of composing.

Cliff Martinez

#13. I don't want to be typecast as the 'ambient guy' or someone who only does electronic scores. I think most of the work that comes my way is because people feel they know me musically.

Cliff Martinez

#14. I'm kind of conservative. I like to build on what I've done in the past and try something new.

Cliff Martinez

#15. I think the music business is becoming more difficult. It's really taken a big hit with piracy, so it's a lot more difficult. I mean, it was kind of an impractical career choice when I did it 25 years ago, but nowadays it's truly reckless.

Cliff Martinez

#16. Pop music is a fashion, and fashions come and go. The public retires you as their tastes change.

Cliff Martinez

#17. The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn. The more I do it, the more I'm humbled. I'm just always trying to get better at it. I pick up a few tricks along the way.

Cliff Martinez

#18. There's nothing worse than a director that keeps changing their mind. Because, unlike the directors I work with, I'm not decisive at all.

Cliff Martinez

#19. I'm not sure why anybody makes a physical CD anymore when the costs are so much lower to just throw it up on iTunes. And it doesn't seem that making a hard copy of something prevents pirating any less. I mean I'm amazed that they still do that.

Cliff Martinez

#20. I think music will be created algorhythmically, all the things that we do will be boiled down to a little computer program.

Cliff Martinez

#21. You'll know if you're a famous composer if 20 years from now your name appears on a pull-down menu in Band in a Box, alongside Hans Zimmer.

Cliff Martinez

#22. Censorship has kind of disappeared in a way because everything is accessible online.

Cliff Martinez

#23. Composers are in some ways the last frontier of musician that gets a paycheck for their musical services.

Cliff Martinez

#24. I like challenges and I definitely would like to be more of a chameleon.

Cliff Martinez

#25. For me, the work begins with a rough cut of the film. I can't do much with the script. I've tried to write music to a script prior to seeing the film, but I've found it turns out to be a waste of time.

Cliff Martinez

#26. I like directors that give their composer a juicy role in their films. Some films have a small, minor role for music, some have a larger role.

Cliff Martinez

#27. I don't like to write any music to a script. Experience has taught me that's generally a waste of time.

Cliff Martinez

#28. If I had kids, I don't think I would recommend they pursue a career in music.

Cliff Martinez

#29. I actually don't see that strong of a connection between my background as a rock 'n roller and my early films. In a way I think your musical identity in film work is determined by the jobs that come your way.

Cliff Martinez

#30. Singer/songwriters spend two or three years making an album, and then it goes up for sale and everybody pirates it and you don't make any money. Whereas, writing a film score you still get presented with a paycheck.

Cliff Martinez

#31. I think there is quite a continuity over my 25 years of doing music, and I'm always trying to break away from it.

Cliff Martinez

#32. I was in the Chilli Peppers at the time and I asked myself, would I be able to wear a sock on my genitals at the age of forty and they proved me wrong because I guess they're still doing it.

Cliff Martinez

#33. I live in Topanga Canyon, which is like a faux-rustic enclave in Los Angeles. I love the sounds of all the critters outside - the frogs, owls, crickets, and birds. Some of the birds around here are pretty accomplished musicians. You can learn a lot from them.

Cliff Martinez

#34. Composing demands a degree of isolation.

Cliff Martinez

#35. When you've finished the film and everybody's already made back all their money, everybody just leaves you alone and I'm very happy. That's what it has to be like.

Cliff Martinez