Ted Leo famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Bands-- enough with the crayon face-paint-- you're better than that.
-- Ted Leo

#Faces #Band #Enough
I do feel like at the end of anger I have to have something that grounds it.
-- Ted Leo

#Ends #Feels
Some people never need to let up at all.
-- Ted Leo

#People #Needs
Though I know for a fact that some of my fans would be happy for me to do anything that's going to help me be successful, namely to go to a major label, and I thank them for that, there'd be a lot of people who I think wouldn't be so happy with that change, and when I DO get dropped, then where would I be?
-- Ted Leo

#Successful #Thinking #People
I used to think success would be sustainability. Not being behind the eight ball.
-- Ted Leo

#Thinking #Eight #Would Be
When I get into the moment of actually feeling like I want to write, to finish something, I do what I've always read authors do, and park myself at a desk and bang things out for three hours. And if I have to throw it all away, I throw it all away.
-- Ted Leo

#Writing #Feelings #Bangs
Most of the time I wind up with a sleepily mumbled melodic line, sometimes with words, sometimes not. But then with my waking brain I have to decide whether it's worth...I mean, sometimes it's not worth it.
-- Ted Leo

#Mean #Wind #Brain
I've dreamed about performing songs, songs that don't even exist, as a complete song.
-- Ted Leo

#Song #Performing
I know that the dream mind is irrational, but I like to think that if I hear something in a dream that's really good, then it's irrational... but it's not crazy.
-- Ted Leo

#Dream #Crazy #Thinking
I actually dream a lot of songs, and I try to be good about voice-memoing ideas.
-- Ted Leo

#Dream #Song #Ideas
As I've grown older I've been more influenced by more meandering styles of guitar playing, whether it's Celtic or Ethiopian folk music or some kind of noisier jazz like Sonny Sharrock. In terms of songwriting, I don't know that I could even pin it down.
-- Ted Leo

#Guitar #Style #Jazz
I am always thinking music.
-- Ted Leo

#Thinking #Always Thinking
It's almost weirder sometimes when you don't have a full life experience with someone's ups and downs, knowing what they've been through. Sometimes a loss that just comes out of left field rings in a very weird way when you have actually sort of relied on this small moment with this or that person, as a moment that actually has defined something for you in your life.
-- Ted Leo

#Loss #Knowing #Small Moments
I actually enjoy Instagram. I enjoy seeing what people who I have some connection to are doing around the globe. I'm even old-school Instagram. I'm here for your "What did you have to eat today?" I'm fine with that.
-- Ted Leo

#Old School #People #Today
Despite the fact that I trust the people at major labels who tell me that they want to offer me a home as a "stable artist," who can just do what he does for the long haul, time has shown that it rarely works out that way - the bottom line is the bottom line, not mention the threat of mergers and firings and whatnot, and people get dropped.
-- Ted Leo

#Home #Artist #Long
The obsessive documentation is itself adjacent to hyper-consumption in our society. The desire to just have everything all the time and adjacent to that is - it might be a little hokey but - a certain loss of identity that then only gets sort of found or ascribed to these moments that are documented. If so much of your experience is devoted to the thought of documentation, you're already sort of spinning out this narrative from this moment that you are attempting to control instead of just experiencing it.
-- Ted Leo

#Loss #Desire #Identity
There are more people that are WORTH playing for and making records for than the fickle and casual - they just don't blog about what they hate as much. I feel like every show that we play live reminds me of why I play music. When you're away from that personal connection, you can get wound up in all the hoo-ha about this and that, but when you get out there and connect with people, you can't help but be moved, and that keeps you going at least until the next show!
-- Ted Leo

#Hate #People #Helping
There's a definite machinery behind everything that a band does, and sometimes it's hard to figure out how far to go in delegating certain responsibilities and staying COMPLETELY DIY.
-- Ted Leo

#Responsibility #Sometimes
I think I'd like to see CDs disappear. Too much plastic crap lying around. If I want some music these days, I'm gonna either get as MP3s or on vinyl.
-- Ted Leo

#Lying #Thinking #Vinyl
I am the stereo-typical classic lapsed Catholic. Religious themes crop up in my songs sometimes as metaphors and other kinds of touchstones for getting at issues and "deeper issues," and all that. Right now, honestly, I think all religion is proving itself to be a NET negative on the human race. I recognize its valuable place in individual lives and many larger communities - I know the good that is done in its various names all over the world, but I don't believe in it anymore, and I see the negative aspects dragging us down at a much faster rate than the positive ones are bouying us up.
-- Ted Leo

#Song #Religious #Believe
When I started playing solo 10 years ago, I had some ham-fisted idea about trying to subvert the "singer-songwriter" tag/genre, and I tried to obscure my identity into the identity of a collective or band or whatever. That's part of the reason that I used to play with backing tapes and why so much of my early stuff was so awash in tape hiss and echo noise.
-- Ted Leo

#Trying #Identity #Obscure
My "degree" has done nothing for me at all. But that I've learned - the critical thought processes I've tried to keep sharp - these things were furthered along by college. I hated so much of my life "at university," but I also loved so much of it, and the things that I loved about it have kept me in a sort of "scholarly pursuit" to this day. Maybe it messed me up because I believe that there are things like truth and beauty, and that art and discussion can help us find them and enhance our lives.
-- Ted Leo

#Art #Believe #College

You may also like:

Aimee Mann
Singer-songwriter
Ben Gibbard
Singer-songwriter
Carrie Brownstein
Musician
Chris Elliott
Actor
Eugene Mirman
Comedian
John Hodgman
Author
Julie Klausner
Author
Michael Penn
Singer-songwriter
Neko Case
Singer-songwriter
Patton Oswalt
Comedian
Paul F. Tompkins
Comedian
Paul Thomas Anderson
Film director
Sarah McLachlan
Musician
Suzanne Vega
Singer-songwriter
Todd Barry
Stand-up comedian
Tom Scharpling
Comedian
Wyatt Cenac
Stand-up comedian
A.C. Newman
Musician
Kurt Braunohler
Comedian
Nicholas Thorburn
Musician