Matt Berninger famous quotes

Weirdly, I was still trying to be the older brother, and trying to get him [ Tom Berninger] to try to be more like me a little bit. Or not be more like me but ... I was frustrated that he sometimes let things stop him in his life, and he let the wind get knocked out of his sails a few times.
-- Matt Berninger

#Brother #Wind #Frustrated

Somehow, you realize you can kind of do anything in music. You don't have to be good at a certain thing; you can just do whatever you want.
-- Matt Berninger

#Want #Kind #Realizing

When I have just sat down and tried to write the lyrics of a song, usually about half of it sounds like bullshit. I just have to go away from something and come back to it again later. I do a lot of editing and switching around and putting little pieces together to get the right mood and personality, and it takes me forever to get a song finished.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Writing #Editing

Lyrics need to be good, but they don't need to be obvious right away.
-- Matt Berninger

#Needs #Obvious #Be Good

Live on coffee and flowers. Try not to worry what the weather will be.
-- Matt Berninger

#Coffee #Flower #Weather

I don't want somebody telling my daughter who she can marry, or what she can do with her body. That's what was at stake.
-- Matt Berninger

#Daughter #Body #Want

There are records that you just sink into. They coincide with what you’re going through and become an ally. If our records do that for people, that’s the greatest compliment I could ever receive. That’s one of the reasons making music is so important to me, because there’s a very strange emotional reach. For me—more than books or movies or other things—music is like a mainline to your heart.
-- Matt Berninger

#Book #Heart #Emotional

You gotta lean towards the things that make you like yourself. Forget everything else.
-- Matt Berninger

#Forget #Like You #Like Yourself

I never sit and fill a journal with lyrics. Most of the time I'm trying to write a feeling, not a story. I'm not necessarily trying to describe the details of a place or event so much as the feeling of the thing. It is a kind of weird alchemy that is elusive until it feels right.
-- Matt Berninger

#Writing #Feelings #Trying

It is the melody and the rhythm that are by far the most important and then words and imagery and stuff, story bits will start to stick to a melody and that is the way I write.
-- Matt Berninger

#Writing #Important #Stories

I became at peace with the darkness or the personality that I have. I am usually pretty funny and happy.
-- Matt Berninger

#Personality #Darkness

I've never quite felt totally comfortable up on stage. I've gotten more comfortable, but drinking wine is a crutch that gives me a little courage. It helps me lose a little bit of the self-consciousness and the awareness of how awkward it is standing on a stage with lights and a bunch of people looking at you while you sing love songs.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Drinking #Wine

I drink wine on stage to sort of loosen my grip on reality a little.
-- Matt Berninger

#Wine #Reality #Littles

My parents know that I have always been sort of a dark melodramatic kid, so they were never concerned.
-- Matt Berninger

#Kids #Dark #Parent

I think most people start rock bands in their early twenties or teens, but I was almost thirty at the time when the band started really doing anything and it took another several years before people started caring about us.
-- Matt Berninger

#Caring #Thinking #Rocks

A song is a song and, if I am emotionally connected to do it, whether it is sad or not sad, I am going to chase that song.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Connected #Ifs

Not all the songs are real events, but I do write about stuff that is close to my heart and it comes out one way or another.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Real #Writing

Maybe because I have spent too much of my life in rock clubs. I don't really go to parties anymore either. I'll usually be in the bus by 11:30 after a show.
-- Matt Berninger

#Party #Rocks #Clubs

Sadness is not always the worst feeling. Sometimes it's a really pleasurable thing to be overwhelmed with sadness.
-- Matt Berninger

#Sadness #Feelings #Overwhelmed

Music has got a community vibe to it that pulls people together, and those communities are different in different places.
-- Matt Berninger

#People #Community #Together

A person with grace is somebody who's socially graceful or is a classy person, but sometimes you just feel the opposite of that, and you just feel like a jerk and a loser and a weirdo.
-- Matt Berninger

#Opposites #Grace #Loser

The song 'Humiliation' is kind of about what if, outside of a dinner party or something, I was blown up by a drone missile, out by the pool. What an embarrassing way to go.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Party #What If

I'm not saying I'm not a moody guy sometimes, but I think I have a pretty normal balance.
-- Matt Berninger

#Thinking #Guy #Balance

I focus on the words and then I have fun putting together the music after.
-- Matt Berninger

#Fun #Focus #Having Fun

We were always in the shadows of the stuff that was getting more attention. So people learned to listen to us slowly over time. And, frankly, we learned how to listen to ourselves. It takes us a long time to write a song that we all really like, so it makes sense that it would take a while for the listener to get there, too.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Writing #Long

I can only write songs when somebody gives me some water to swim in. Otherwise, I'm a fish on the beach.
-- Matt Berninger

#Song #Beach #Writing