57 Quotes by Aaron Dessner

Big Red Machine is really a community effort: I guess it involves almost 30 musicians. It does come out of our friendship, but it's really something that is deeply collaborative.

I always want to have time to experiment, and have transitional things, and have these weird non-songs, but usually the stuff I'm working on comes down to this weird deadline, where it just never happens, and it's kind of a bummer.

When you're working with someone new, it takes a second to understand their instincts and range. It's not really conscious.

Sometimes you become the person people try to pin you into a corner to be, which is not really fair.

Anyone who's speaking up about anything becomes a target.

I tried hard not to think about the scope or scale of making a record that would be heard by millions and millions of people. I did a pretty good job of tuning that out.

The National guys will tell you the same thing - I tend to work until the last possible minute.

It's actually not that hard to play guitar in a rock band.

I do have a way of playing piano where it's very melodic and emotional, but then often it's great if whoever's singing doesn't sing exactly what's in the piano melody, but maybe it's connected in some way.