Explore Quotes by Mat Kearney

'Nothing Left to Lose' was an album that I wrote in my bedroom, and you don't know who is listening or who cares.

I think my faith is a huge part of my music. But for me, it didn't make sense to be in any specific market. I write songs for a lot of different kinds of people.

I think you can hear all my hip hop influences in 'Just Kids.'

I love to play the songs that got me to where I am. I like to take a little bit from all of my records and mix it up.

With 'City of Black & White,' I wanted a record that would make you feel good, that would sort of take you up in its hand and sweep you along.

As an artist, you tend to gravitate to the opposite. I know, when I finish a song or an album, I'm interested in doing something completely new. It doesn't always happen, but that's the idea. My poor fans - I don't know if they love that or hate that.

There are people I love in Nashville and would not want to go a day without talking to, but I want to see the world.

I don't think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up.

I started writing music in a season of my life where people were telling me I wasn't defined by mistakes, and God really loved me and was fighting for me, and there was a journey to be had with that. And I don't know of a more important message.

I enjoy changing; I think it's more fun to try something different than to just do what you did last time. As an artist, you just want to keep creating, keep finding a place that really inspires you that feels fresh and new, and keep it exciting.

Ultimately, when you write from a vantage point of faith, humility, and openness to the world around you, people have to respond because those same truths are instilled in them.

I love Bruce Springsteen's writing, but I grew up on '90s hip hop, like Tribe Called Quest.

I started as a writer. I didn't play music until late in life.

I was an English major, and I always wrote poems.

When 'Young Love' came out, I was really excited, and it has been really special.

Owl City is exactly as you'd imagine him. It's hard to have much on him. He's like a frightened bunny. I feel like if you yelled at him, he'd just dart to a corner of the room.

Somehow, my music really suits doctors making out in the syringe room.

Even on tour, where I perform songs from 'City Of Black And White,' I still do songs from 'Nothing Left To Lose.' I never turned my back on that material. On some albums, you change - that's all. The trick is to follow your heart and do what feels right.

The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik, and even Ryan Adams... That was the first place I really started playing music, and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage.

Getting married and really digging in with another human being can point out your greatest strengths and your greatest weaknesses.

I think I have always made really beat-driven pop-rock records.