St. Vincent
Life can be challenging and sad... but music is the easy part.Collection: Sad
In regards to being a fashion aficionado, there's a certain amount of taking yourself seriously in the professional world. The self-effacing person can't completely go down the serious road. But I design, and love when things are beautiful.Collection: Design
I'm unqualified to do anything other than music.
I've always been pretty ravenous about pop culture, highbrow and lowbrow.
The Lilith Fair thing was Bummer Town - hey, hop aboard the marginalizing train. I guess you had people come out of that and have careers, but I think there was a pretty intense backlash, too.
I've always wanted to make music like people write plays, so I was inspired by writers as much as musicians.
Well, I've been recording myself on a computer since I was about 13 or 14. So it's completely entwined with my creative process. Essentially, it allows you to make music that's better and smarter than you are, by using your ears to lead the way.
Whirlyball is only the most awesome sport on the planet! It's like bumper cars plus lacrosse meets basketball.
All you can do is make something that you like and feel proud of and then just hope for the best and try to get out of its way.
Generally my day-to-day is pretty much the same. Just busy and working and on tour. And trying to put on the best show possible every night.
Fashion, for me, is anything that's aesthetic and beautiful. Art, food, film. It's something that I appreciate and really like.
I love Robert Fripp. You know what I really appreciate about Robert Fripp? He always dresses appropriately for the occasion. When he's on stage, he's a Dapper Dan.
I remember looking at the sky and thinking that the universe is so big and it's all chaos. I call it 'the dark fear.' At any moment, the dark fear could come in.
I think human beings have a really broad spectrum of traits, and I almost feel implicated when we say, 'Men are like this, women are like this.' Nobody was telling me, 'Don't get dirty, don't play in the mud, girls don't do that.'
I think in some ways, it can do a listener a disservice to explain a song. I think I'd rather leave a little room for people to put themselves in it.
I just love playing guitar, so that's what I'm going to do.
Musically, I have more things in common with tons of bands that have no female members.
I'm supportive of women, absolutely, and it's so gratifying to have girls come up and say, 'I'm really inspired by your guitar playing.' I mean no disrespect to the sisterhood, but musically I feel more drawn to things like Dirty Projectors, the National and Grizzly Bear.
I grew up around a lot of various religions, so it's a part of my consciousness in a way. Everything from heavy Catholicism to followers of Indian spiritual masters to Unitarian universalists - all in one family. Though the family aspect was stronger than any particular dogma.
I was a lusty kid who loved Tennessee Williams.
Guitar is just something I can do. So much of it now is muscle memory, just instinct.
I guess trying to throw my body into the guitar is so natural for me that I don't even know how to explain it. I can't imagine life without it.
A song has a life of its own. It's an autonomous thing, separate from your own experience, almost. And the mere repetition of it means it's subject to change; it means approaching it differently, expressing different emotional aspects of it. It doesn't feel like wallowing.
I was always just kind of obsessed with guitar, even before I started playing.
I think a lot of people who want to be musicians terrify their parents because they don't have a living example of it in their families, and I did. So I always knew that it was possible.
And if I'm honest about it, I was obsessed with Nirvana and Pearl Jam. This is like '92, right in the throes of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I think I probably wanted to be Kurt Cobain.
I grew up in Texas and we used to go to Padre Island, eight hours in the car down to the beach.
My dad used to love Steely Dan, the Stones, Jethro Tull and all that. There was always Steely Dan going in my dad's car, but I remember The Royal Scam in particular because it has 'Kid Charlemagne' on it.
One of my favourite things about country music is that, at least until recently, you could always count on a solid story, a punchline and a pun. I think it has that in common with hip hop, where they're not afraid of wordplay and I really appreciate that.
I started playing guitar when I was 12 and probably from that age knew that I wanted to make music and make my own music. Playing with other bands like the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens was more like an apprenticeship for me than anything.
I only listen to my own music when I'm playing an hour-and-half set each night. I don't put it on recreationally.
I've been watching a lot of Joan Didion interviews on YouTube. I love her. My drummer has gotten me into looking at Terence McKenna interviews.
To be honest, because there's loud music in my ears probably three hours a day, between sound check and the show, I listen to podcasts more than I listen to music on the road.
I wrote 'Actor' all on the computer. I didn't touch any instruments until I was in the studio. So while I had all these ornate arrangements, I didn't have any songs.
I've been so entwined with technology since I was about 15, recording myself and multitracking and producing things on my own.
I have a great band. Oh, man. I'm so happy about them.
It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer.... Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity.Collection: God
Lord, help me to make time today to serve you in those who are most in need of encouragement or assistance.Collection: Encouragement
The poor have much to teach you. You have much to learn from them.Collection: Poor
It's not enough to do good. It must be done well.Collection: Done
I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron.Collection: Iron
You will find out that Charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the kettle of soup and the full basket. But you will keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give soup and bread. This the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor, always smiling and good-humored. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting master you will see. And the uglier and the dirtier they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give to them.Collection: Love You
Extend your mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need whom you meet without helping. For what hope is there for us if God should withdraw His Mercy from us?Collection: Saint
It is absolutely necessary, both for our advancement and the salvation of others, to follow always and in all things the beautiful light of faithCollection: Beautiful
No matter what others say or do, even if the wicked succeed, do not be troubled: commit everything to God and put your trust in him.Collection: Wicked
It is from your hands that Our Lord, in the person of the sick, seeks relief.Collection: Hands
The affairs of God are accomplished little by little and almost imperceptibly. The Spirit of God is neither violent nor hasty. He does all things in His time.Collection: Doe
However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.Collection: Self
Free your mind from all that troubles you; God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this (choice) without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires.Collection: Heart
Your skin's so fair its not fairCollection: Skins