DJ Shadow Quotes

Frequently, when I'm compared to someone, I'm like, "Is that really what people think I sound like?"

I've always feel like it's been my place to offer an alternative.

When I first pursued this with Universal, they had no idea what to do. But now that we've gone through the whole process and I've signed this 60-page document that says what we can and can't do, I suppose it will be a little bit easier for the next person.

I don't care if I get kicked out of every rich kid club on the planet. I will never sacrifice my integrity as a DJ ... ever.

I saw. I wanted to start my own store so people would know that what they were buying was real. There were bootlegs around at the time that had my name on the cover, but the music had nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to compare myself to [Jimmie] Hendrix, but back in the '70s, there were some Hendrix bootlegs.

If I have a chance to positively impact how the populace views DJs, then I'm going to try to do my part to nudge things in the right direction.

Like a lot of other DJs, I've been wondering when the first DJ game was going to happen. Somebody even pitched me on their own idea and I thought, "I'm not a video game startup; I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this."

I always managed to fly a bit below the radar, but high enough to avoid colliding into anything.

When I'm looking for DJ sets and stuff to drop, I look for music that I feel is gonna get the reaction I want from the crowd.

I tend to gravitate away from the more trendy Ibiza style of dance music. It's not me.

I would agree with you that there's 90% imitation and 10% innovation. That's true of any genre.

Yeah, I do. HipHop was, though I would not say all, cause I try to keep myself open to other things, but nearly all I listend to for the last 14 years of my life.

If you think of any long-term artist that makes music throughout several decades, you would hope that it's autobiographical and a form of self-expression, and that's certainly how I approach my music.

I personally feel the need to experience life and new music and ideas before I can sit down and start writing music again.

So, in addition to being a full-time father of two and everything else in life, it isn't so much that I'm sitting around plotting an album. I just kinda follow my muse and wherever my interests lie, and at some point I decide, "Right. It's been a while, time to figure out how to get serious and make some music."

I remember when the big shift happened in 1996-97, when suddenly it dawned on the music community: 'We should license our music to commercials and sell out for all intents and purposes. It doesn't really matter.'

People love drama, and if you aren't really interested in perpetuating that, it keeps you from exploding on a mainstream stage. I'm totally fine with that.

I couldn't make a real drum'n'bass or dubstep record to save my life. But I can be influenced by them in small ways.

Anything that sparks some eight-year-old's interest in music or DJing is great.

Any good album title has multiple meanings, and I like choosing titles where I find myself repeating it, almost like a mantra.

Just like on Guitar Hero, there are things that are similar and things that are not similar at all. When I first played DJ Hero, I wasn't very good. The control surface is similar in some ways to a turntable, but in other ways not at all the same.

One of my favorite things that Yahoo does on a regular basis is this story: "Wealthiest Rap Artists." That's an example of the internet just perpetuating this myth that we're all just sitting around in these mansions like Steven Tyler, bopping around in our swimming pool. It's bullshit.

My main thing is constantly looking forward and trying to make music that I couldn't have made at any other time.

I always consider every album to be a snapshot.

I was sort of like a kid in a candy store, realizing it was fun making beats without the perceived burden that every track I did had to be a some progressive sample masterpiece. It was nice to blow off steam and work on those songs. For me, that's what 'The Outsider' was about in general: forget everything, I'm just gonna follow my own music, and make the music I want to make.

I still consider myself a consumer of music more than anything else.

The conventional wisdom of fandom is that you must give your fans anything they want. But I've never felt that that's a healthy attitude - and that comes from being a Star Wars fan.

Everything right now tends to be the same and very aggressive, and I think people are getting a little burned out on it.