John Cale - Quotes
On recording
"Cataloging everything you've done - I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in different ways of expressing myself. If I'm lucky, it will work."
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"I like finding new styles of expression, whether it's with lyrics or music. I like the new combinations. I'm proving it to myself. That has to be the first consideration, because if I can't prove it to myself I can't hope to prove it to anybody else. That's the rubric generally. If I'm interested in what I'm doing than I think other people will be interested in it."
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"I always end up with a very different product from what I originally intended. It's always during the course of the production that something happens - it seems that I've convinced myself it's not real unless the tapes are running."
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"I'm content with making records, but I don't want to be doing the same thing all the time."
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"In the studio you have pretty much carte blanche with whatever you're doing. You can turn natural instruments into electronic instruments."
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"I'm still looking for something. I'm getting closer, I think, but if someone moves the goalposts before the next album, I may have to follow them!"
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"You can easily end up just being a techno guy if you're not careful. You have got to have some humanity in there."
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"Phil Spector had a good idea. He took rhythm and blues and gave it a Wagnerian background. I like breaking things down into the lowest dominator and seeing how much tension can be created between the indivual parts, in order to creat a loud noise."
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"Sometimes I wish I wrote more songs, I don't write anywhere outside the studio. That's where it always gets done – going blindly into something. To me that's always been important. To go blindly into it."