From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Whenever I write a new song with somebody, it feels like the first time. I sometimes feel embarrassed, humiliated, like I don't know what I'm doing until we find a spark. You have to dare to go to this place where, even though you've done it before, it feels like you don't know what you're looking for until you find it.
The process can kill their musicianship. The process can drown-out the music so much that you can't hear it anymore… you end-up so cut off from your intuitive self that it's a series of obstacles playing a piece of music rather than something which is an expression.
When you're identifying talent in music or other industries- one of the most important things to identify is which of those individuals is able to marry talent with extraordinary drive.
Songs are these magnetic creations of words and music, in very short form. A song needs to hit you in less than a minute and sometimes it can be an incredibly solitary, emotional experience where it's just you and the imagined relationship with that singer.
Most fundamentally- we respond emotionally to music- sound is communicative, it affects us, it causes feelings and connections. Sound making and listening are communal activities, they're communicative activities… music moves us, and when we listen to it, we feel transported.
I walked in completely anonymous and meanwhile these people are responding to my work and have no idea who I am, and it was just 'this is the most incredible feeling in the world'.
In improvisation on instruments, I feel creation is going a new path with every note, somewhere you haven't been before. You discover things, you're the adventurer in music. That leads to new songs and nice adventures.
You know how difficult that is in a nightclub in New York at 5 in the morning? Everybody just stopped and started listening.
Previously, there were a lot of gatekeepers that controlled how you were supposed to listen to music… you'd walk into a record shop, and there was a special room for classical, and different genres in different places… that's all gone now, and you can follow your enthusiasm and affection for music however you want to. There's something beautiful and liberating about that.
I want to take African rhythm and put it into classical music, European jazz, and symphonies. I want people to come together from all over the place, through music. That's my legacy.
Songs are like a cleanse for the nervous system. I was walking through London the other day, and my mind was full of my to-do list, work, and so much more. I put on She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel and I just suddenly felt psychologically lifted.
Music leads you to a greater understanding. Einstein said that relativity came to him through musical intuition- he was a great violinist, and was also Chair of the Princeton Orchestra. Bach had a phenomenal, and intuitive, understanding of mathematics too.