Daryl Hall
Americans think that if you're popular, there must be something wrong with you.
I'm very enthused about everything. I have a lot to say and a lot of things I'm interested in.
My fan base is really expanding into an inter-generational thing - it's what every artist probably hopes for.
To write a good song, an artist has to drawn from reality. There has to be some spark from realism that communicates a real feeling to someone else. You have to be real. Or you have to be a really good storyteller.
I've been traveling around the world forever.
I'm a born collaborator. This is what I was born to do, really.
I'm quite an eclectic musician.
I had the idea of 'Live From Daryl's House' way before I contracted Lyme disease.
I'm constantly on my toes and re-examining my own music.
The Internet allows me to be more free.
I've watched the world crash and burn in every sense. I've watched the record industry crash and burn; politically I've watched it crash and burn, financially crash and burn.
You externalise extreme emotions, and you look at them objectively and understand them from a different standpoint.
I'd like to see more crossover between white and black music. That's something I've been advocating for years.
The whole American pop culture started in Philadelphia with 'American Bandstand' and the music that came out of that city.
For years and years, I was beset with snide remarks by certain members of the press, where they would turn John Oates into a joke, or they would trivialize what I do, which never really bothered me all that much.
I always say the same thing - believe in what you do, do it, and don't veer away from the truth of it.
As I got older, my voice got better.
If you see me walking down the street, you're gonna see the same guy as you do on stage, dressed the same, looking the same, and nothing changes. I'm just one person.
I think Philadelphia has been underrated over the years as a musical region.
The biggest honor of my career was when I won R&B Artist of the Year back in the 1970s. I look at that as a major honor.
I'm always interested in what fans think.
The song 'Laughing Down Crying' is not a typical Daryl song.
I don't like showboating. I was never a fan of showing off.
As a singer, I float around. I'm kind of scatty, bouncing around a lot. I try to adapt to what's going on around me in the song and the arrangement.
Late 20th century music was a really important thing. It changed the world, and I'm part of that, and now I'm part of the museum that celebrates that.
I specialize in early homes, and what I care about the most is renovating a home and taking it back to its original construction idea.
In my Philly neighborhood, black and white kids hung together without even thinking about it. The spirit of Martin Luther King was alive and well.
What I do isn't black music; it's just my music.
If you're African American, you are forced into making different choices, in a lot of cases, than you are as a white person.
I've always been a spontaneous singer. And all the stuff that you hear on the end of the songs, what they call the ad libs - that just comes out of my head. That's not thought out at all. I have the verses and the choruses, and then after that it's total improvisation.
I've always been a guy who likes to stretch my limits - to find out if I have any, really.
I knew that I would be making music for my whole life; as far as how many people respond to it, you can't plan for that.
Having a solo career is a funny thing.
The younger generation gives me more respect than I could ever hope for.
I think an artist's true worth comes through an inter-generational thing - when you go beyond your own time, and start influencing people in a greater way than just what surrounds you.
Some artists are nervous - most of them are, to tell you the truth, and they have different ways of exhibiting that. Some of them are boisterous, some are really quiet.
I think there are people who really always have and always will care about the quality of music in general, about the sound of the music, things like that.
The Philadelphia/New York world of the music business is a tough place to be.
To me, there's two kinds of music these days. There's ephemeral music, and there's music that has lasting power and depth.
Any song I don't feel good about, I shelve. Anything you ever hear me sing, it's because I want to.
Nobody's going to sell 10 million records by not working hard.
My house is actually two houses that were deconstructed. They were Connecticut Valley houses built in 1771 and 1781. I took them down piece by piece and reconstructed them about 50 miles to the west on the New York/Connecticut border.
When you're playing in front of people, everything is external. It's all going from you out to an audience. When you're in a studio, it's very internalised, it's going from the air through you into this meticulously crafted, layered piece of work.
Every artistic form has its golden age, and unfortunately I think the golden age for whatever I do probably ended about 1990.
I hear a lot of people singing in funny voices and singing like they're stupid. Singing in a deliberately fey and dumb and childish way. And I find it to be a disturbing trend.
You must always be very cautious and be as vigilant as you can. You work diligently to provide a secure environment,.Collection: Environment
Around 1974, I graduated into the occult, and spent a sold six or seven years immersed in the Kabala and the Chaldean, Celtic, and Druidic traditions I also became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century magician who shared these beliefs.Collection: Years
The Daryls House thing has made me into a live musician even more than I ever was, and even in the way I record.Collection: House
The difference between me and other people in my generation is instead of saying the Internet's killing the record business, I say, 'Who cares about the record business, the Internet is enhancing music.Collection: Differences