Ron Mael
Musician
1945-08-12
Quotes by Ron Mael
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Even though we try not to be nostalgic about drawing from old music, I'm always inspired by things like old Cole Porter songs or the words in the Gershwin songs or even Stephen Sondheim, where there's a real craft to them but it isn't only that you're hearing the words it's that it links so well with the music.
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I'm basically a stoic person anyway, so I just decided to maybe emphasise that, and I was surprised as anybody that it was gaining as much attention as all the jumping about.
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Gould recorded Bach's 'Variations' twice but the 1955 one was so fresh. He had a quirky approach to playing and he looked better than anybody: he would lean back on a tiny stool, wearing overcoats and scarves.
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The first time we wrote a full-blown movie musical was our adaptation of 'Mai, the Psychic Girl' for Tim Burton, which didn't get made. We learned pretty early on from that experience how to incorporate dialogue into a musical setting that feels naturalistic while still feeling stylized.
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So much respect is given to artists who are doing things that seems sort of timeless and legitimate. That kind of legitimacy and timelessness is to me sort of the opposite of what pop music should be.
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When I was in France, I'd buy books about the history of the Cannes Film Festival, with all those images of the red carpet with, you know, Brigitte Bardot and Marcello Mastroianni in his tuxedo. To actually be going there with the opening-night film is really surreal.
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There's definitely a Leos Carax universe that he has created in his films; we've done something similar with our music and lyrics. He's a pretty uncompromising filmmaker and we feel the same way.
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I like the jarring thing, both in the music and the lyrics. That's why a lot of times our songs have a proper name of somebody. Usually you hear lyrics and something's going on, but it's just song lyrics. But if there's something in it, even a name that you don't associate with a song, it sticks out and becomes less wallpaper.
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