Greg Saunier Quotes

#1. There's part of me that feels a privilege not to do music, but to do what everybody should be allowed to do, which is to do what you're driven to do.

Greg Saunier

#2. I love love. Growing up, I always thought it was a state, and I'd wait for it to appear. Now I think it's an activity, a skill, something you strive to create. A constant conversation between emotion and imagination and flesh.

Greg Saunier

#3. Usually if someone starts making universal claims, I tune right on out.

Greg Saunier

#4. Almost everything that gets called "universal truth" or "common sense" is actually cultural. And too easily twisted into justifications for all kinds of behavior.

Greg Saunier

#5. I've learned it's a human responsibility to create fun, not just wait for it.

Greg Saunier

#6. What's great about going on tour is that it immediately unburdens me of those self-centered misconceptions. Because suddenly, with these songs you've been obsessed with for months, you're playing them for hundreds of people.

Greg Saunier

#7. I play drums, and I'd recommend it to anyone, except maybe your neighbors. It's great exercise - physical, mental, emotional, and social. It takes deep concentration but also activates concentration. If you're doing it right, it's always just a little harder than what you can actually pull off.

Greg Saunier

#8. I've found that writing and playing music has so little to do with will, and so much to do with just finding what's there waiting for you.

Greg Saunier

#9. My projects are just side effects of what I obsess over, what I chat about, what random things pop into my head, what I dream at night.

Greg Saunier

#10. There were no rules. There's no guide to follow. I would just trust my instincts for some unknown reason. Something inside me would say, "This guitar is not loud enough," and I wouldn't know why. You never know how to reach that point until you've reached it.

Greg Saunier

#11. I try not to think about the drums themselves. If I do, I'll end up hitting myself in the head with a drumstick, or sustaining some weird injury.

Greg Saunier

#12. When I'm playing best, I'm just thinking about the music, just interacting with what my bandmates are playing.

Greg Saunier

#13. What most people call "chaos" is actually incredibly predictable and maddeningly boring - greed, close-mindedness, warring over power.

Greg Saunier

#14. It's amazing to think that there must be this river of ideas constantly rushing inside of a person, and once you've somehow found a path into it, then it's just there, whether you will it to be or not.

Greg Saunier

#15. It's weird to me to even say, "I wrote this song." I never feel like I wrote it; I feel like I heard it.

Greg Saunier

#16. That's one of the things that always grabbed me about rock music: There's a song, and you know how it goes, and you can sort of predict it, but a lot is left up to chance and interaction.

Greg Saunier

#17. I'm a rock-and-roll drummer, so my job is to create chaos.

Greg Saunier

#18. It's very heartening to see people who I used to do music with still doing it.

Greg Saunier

#19. When we play, every day is different. All three of my bandmates surprise me all the time.

Greg Saunier

#20. I'm always looking to disprove what I think I know for sure. I call that learning.

Greg Saunier

#21. I guess a lot of bands play around until they come up with something they like.

Greg Saunier

#22. It's a great privilege to be able to play that much. When you play a lot, you can be really detail-oriented.

Greg Saunier

#23. I have music in my head; I can't help it. You can put a gun to my head and it's not going to go away. The privilege is that I'm not being prevented from following that.

Greg Saunier

#24. I'm not unswayed by the opinions of others. I actually really value that, the idea that you can feel things the way somebody else might feel them is a really big part of doing music for me.

Greg Saunier