Sean Stevens’s Reviews > How Music Works > Status Update

“In musical performances one can sense that the person on stage is having a good time even if they're singing a song about breaking up or being in a bad way.For an actor this would be anathema it would destroy the illusion but with singing one can have it both ways. As a singer you can be transparent and reveal yourself on stage, in that moment, and at the same time be the person whose story is being told in the song

“Does asking oneself these questions in an attempt to see how the machine works spoil the enjoyment? It hasn’t for me. Music isn’t fragile. Knowing how the body works doesn’t take away from the pleasure of living.”

“Music can get us through difficult patches in our lives by changing not only how we feel about ourselves, but also how we feel about everything outside ourselves.”

“What begins as a random walk often ends up taking you somewhere, somewhere that you later realise was exactly where you wanted to go.”

“The classical players who think all popular music is simple tend not to hear the nuances involved, so naturally they can’t play very well in that style. Simplicity is a kind of transparency in which subtle nuances can have outsize effects. When everything is visible and appears to be dumb, that’s when the details take on larger meanings.”

“I wanted to find a reason not to be cynical—to have some faith even when nothing around me seemed to justify it.”

“There are two conversations going on at the same time: the story and a conversation about how the story is being told.”

“The online music magazine Pitchfork once wrote that I would collaborate with anyone for a bag of Doritos.”

“My favorite term for a new kind of performance is "security theater." In this genre, we watch as ritualized inspections and patdowns create the illusion of security. It's a form that has become common since 9/11, and even the government agencies that participate in this activity acknowledge,off the record, that it is indeed a species of theater.”

“Music resonates in so many parts of the brain that we can’t conceive of it being an isolated thing. It’s whom you were with, how old you were, and what was happening that day.”