116 Quotes by Nick Lowe

I think the best songs that come to me are ones that you sort of listen for. The ones – when I listen to some of my old stuff, I can tell when I had a good idea, but I forced it through, and I can hear myself – the bit that I’ve written, which sounds clunkier than the stuff that just sort of comes.

I’ve always felt kind of like an outsider, even when I was very successful back in the old days. Even then. I kind of enjoyed it, really.

I use the name and the thought very, very easily as a sort of comfort – as a kind of comfort, in some way. And in that way, it’s just like having a friend, I suppose.

In the ’70s, you had to come up with an album every year whether you were ready or not.

I’m very fussy about how my records sound, but I’m very aware that because of the way they sound, I will never be a big-selling, mainstream artist because the public has gotten conditioned to hearing pop music in a certain way. And I don’t do it that way.

It was the 1950s, you know, and they had a ray gun, which was basically a flashlight with a sort of trigger on it. And it buzzed and a red light, you know, came on. But anyway we all had one – Davy Crockett hat.

As soon as one of my records goes on, it makes a vast portion of the public nervous. They get spooked by it. To some people who have ears to hear, it’s a delightful, refreshing change. But to most of the public, it’s a load of homemade-sounding nonsense.

There’s really never any sort of master plan. I find if I’ve got a couple of tunes that I think are possibilities, I phone everyone up and get them into the studio and we’ll have a go at recording them.