When I listen to music these days, and I hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine - it kinda sucks the life out of music.
Interpretation
Dave Grohl expresses his disappointment with modern music production techniques that lack the organic feel of live instruments.
In this quote, Dave Grohl reflects on the contemporary state of music production, particularly criticizing the use of technology that detracts from the emotional and human qualities of music. He suggests that the reliance on digital tools and machine-like sounds can leave music feeling lifeless, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and the raw energy that live instruments provide.
In practice
In a debate about the evolution of music, this quote can be used to illustrate concerns over digital production techniques.
There's a reason why the Foo Fighters don't blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that's hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn't really come up, or it just hasn't felt right.
I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician.
Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do.
That’s one of the great things about music. You can sing a song to 85,000 people and they’ll sing it back for 85,000 different reasons.
As I get older... I start to realize that life ain't half bad. Each year, I'm amazed that I'm still alive. I don't take any of this for granted, I'm a lucky dude.
In this day and age, when you can use a machine or computer to simulate or emulate what people can do together, it still can't replace the magic of four people in a room playing.
Their task [creative artists], therefore, is to communicate directly from one inward world to another, in such a way that an actual shock of experience will have been rendered: not a mere statement for the information or persuasion of a brain, but an effective communication across the void of space and time from one center of consciousness to another.
I'm not about either entertaining or instructing. The entertaining and instructing are secondary fallout from the fundamental thing, which is basically to create an aesthetic object.
To be a good writer, you not only have to write a great deal but you have to care. You do not have to have a complicated moral philosophy. But a writer always tries, I think, to be a part of a solution, to understand a little about life and to pass this on.
My business is to be talented, that is, to be capable of selecting the important moments from the trivial ones. . . . It's about time for writers - particularly those who are genuine artists - to recognize that in this world you cannot figure out everything. Just have a writer who the crowds trust be courageous enough and declare that he does not understand everything, and that alone will represent a major contribution to the way people think, a long leap forward.
I like books that are fat and full.
Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.
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