We've been together since we've been teenagers. I can go away and disappear for two years, and when we get back together, it's like nothing ever has changed.
Well, because we're so different as people. And it's that difference that probably also makes it easy to stay together, because we don't get in each others way.
When you really can't affect something, you almost don't wanna wish too hard, because it's just frustrating.
I'm an indie artist with major distribution, so one foot in the extreme major music business and one foot in the abyss of indie artists.
I've been asked to do various types of cruises.
In the days when regional music was very clearly defined and had a clear personality - Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, whatever - Philadelphia had a tradition that was very distinct and unique.
The world has accelerated to the point that, as far as the album as a form, I don't know if it's going to last that much longer.
Well, before we met I had heard and seen him sing so I knew he was good.
My mustache has become this weird iconic representation of a certain era.
There's all sorts of soul. There's Irish soul and Native American soul. If it touches you and moves you, it's soul.
I don't care if it's a Cole Porter song, or George Gershwin, or Lennon/McCartney, or Elton John, or you know, whoever, Bob Dylan. Great songs are great songs, and they stand the test of time, and they can be interpreted and recorded with many points of view, but yet still retain the essence of what makes them good songs.
I think social media is so important; the young bands have certainly embraced that and used that to their advantage.
We should have an easier name to pronounce.
If I had to drop everything and just be a songwriter, I would be OK with that because that's the real joy.
I'd like to do something with the Avett Brothers.
I wish I could see over crowds and small groups of people.
To me, when a great band is playing together, it's amazing for me.
It's the music that brings us together.
I'm bad at math.
I do a lot of things behind the scenes. I do a lot of things that don't hit the headlines.
I was just glad to meet somebody outside of my group of small town friends who was into music. Somebody else who had aspirations to do something more than sing at a record hop.
I used to love assemblies because it got me out of class.
I realized if I'm not really making an album, I don't have to be concerned about things like stylistic consistency, pacing, a coherent mood. All that stuff goes out the window.
I may just keep releasing singles 'til I run out of music, which is kind of cool in a way - as long as people don't go, 'Oh my God, not another one!'
Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' spread the gospel of American pop music and teenage style that transcended the regional boundaries of our country and united a youth culture that eventually spread its message throughout the entire world.
I never finish a show without singing 'She's Gone.'
I like playing on stage, don't get me wrong.
If something that needs to be done that we don't feel confronting, we do it through the manager.
We collaborate together. We work with other people. We work by ourselves.
I just like playing with the band and doing what I do.
The only job I'd ever had that might be considered not playing music was teaching guitar, which I did in college for a while, but that still falls in the same category.
The Katy Perry stuff, those are great songs.
Personally, I've never really wanted to be a rock star. That wasn't my motivation in life. It kind of happened.
I have such a wide variety of tastes in things that I like musically.
My guitar playing is a synthesis of traditional American acoustic style and Urban Pop and R&B.
When my song came on the radio for the first time, that was one of the heaviest things I remember.
Jam Cruise is actually a comfortable place for me. My jamming skills and my improvisational skills have improved immensely as I've gone more solo, because I've had this opportunity.
The decline of the major labels has changed the audience. They aren't force-fed by a system any more. They can make their own decisions.
If I stopped touring tomorrow, it wouldn't change my life.
You don't want to pitch a tent and live inside the Louvre. You want to check it out, appreciate it, and move somewhere else.
I think the key to making records generally is to make 'em for yourself, regardless of the climate in the business.
I think in music and a lot of creative fields, people's egos get in the way of their ability of seeing the big picture.
I sense people respond more to the honest approach to making music instead of the manufactured approach.
I'm always reading something.
With Hall & Oates, honestly, after years and years of playing the same material, it's easy to coast. I can coast through a show.
If you look over the years, the styles have changed - the clothes, the hair, the production, the approach to the songs. The icing to the cake has changed flavors. But if you really look at the cake itself, it's really the same.
Back in the early '90s, I started going to Nashville to do a lot of co-writes. One of the first people I met there was Keith Follese. Keith and his wife Adrienne are both songwriters, and we wrote some songs together.
Once you've made a record, you don't need to make it again. It's done, and it's out there forever, a moment in time that encapsulates whatever was happening in that moment.
The key, I think, from a business point of view, is to learn how to be efficient in making a record that's not too expensive, so that you're not going crazy spending tons of money making a product that might not ever return that money.
