Kevin Shields Quotes

As I get older, I realize a lot of the things I could have done - things that I didn't think were so great at the time - actually would have been enjoyable.

A lot of people at my school could play the "Stairway to Heaven" guitar solo, but they couldn't play three chords of a Ramones song if their life depended on it because they didn't have the strength or ability to do it. But all I did was practice that, and the style that I eventually fell into is more focused than people would actually imagine.

Skepticism is only a time-based reality, and as an ultimate reality, it's always wrong, because everything always happens.

Oftentimes, when people cut a record from analog tape to vinyl, they digitize the music first; I did a little investigating and discovered that most vinyl records that I've ever heard were digitized before they were put onto vinyl.

Musically, I just think in terms of what's next. There's a lot of things I've always dreamed of doing, and I hope I get to them before I get too deaf.

You wind up listening to one song that you really like 30 times on YouTube and then you're done with it. That's the way it is.

Most people just give up with time and go, "I'm a victim." The only reason I've got the reputation for delays and spending a long time on things is because I just don't stop.

I buy magazines. I'm not floating around in my own universe. I'm interested in everything.

I don't feel bound by the ebbs and flows of musical trends, or what's happening with new music in general.

We've had incredibly huge obstacles in our way - no tapes, no royalties, no cooperation on any level - and we sort it out.

When I'm listening to stuff on the computer or through a horrible little speaker on my phone, and then I hear the real version with the bass and everything, I sometimes don't like it as much. I definitely believe that any medium is viable in that respect.

I do need to loosen up a bit, and that usually does come with old age. That's the intention.

I wasn't making music for the sake of music but rather making music in the context of other music. At the same time, it doesn't mean I'm not going to try and do that some day.

Even I just listen to some bands on YouTube. I'll think, "Oh, I quite like that, I should buy it someday," but I don't get around to buying half the stuff I liked.

The very nature of limiting something from an infinite to moments in time creates distortion; analog recording methods create all kinds of distortion, they're just not digital distortion.

When I was a teenager, I learned that in order to play guitar like Johnny Ramone, it takes a huge amount of physical effort.

I had the time to take the original analog tapes and fix all the things I didn't like, so all I left was essentially the benefits of the analog with none of the disadvantages.

Digital might capture the dynamics of what I heard before it went to tape a bit more accurately, but on the other hand, when we'd switch from listening to the digital version to the analog, the change was so profound - the music would suddenly go three-dimensional, and it felt much more engaging.

Ownership and control is important, because if you don't own what you do, all sorts of stupid stuff happens to it, and people spend good money on garbage.

I don't feel bound by the ebbs and flows of musical trends, or what's happening with new music in general. I always had a fascination with that sound. It's a mixture of the idea that something could be going wrong along with the idea of bending constrained, Westernized music out of tune. But because I wasn't copying an idea, and it just came from somewhere inside me, it felt like a birth of something that most people didn't understand at the time.

I don't have a role model, but I certainly have always enjoyed Neil Young. I had the great pleasure and opportunity to watch him from the side of the stage on a couple of occasions, and his on-stage sound is incredible.

The French were always masters at mid-range. And I like the attitude.

I love when things bend out of shape. That's why I love drum and bass music.

The corporate system is fully psychopathic, and any creative people who enter into business with any of these organizations come up against a lifetime of issues. You just deal with it as you go along. It'll keep on happening until people reorganize the organizations.

In reality, there's a limit to putting a record out yourself. When it comes to working with major record companies in the context of them owning anything, though, that will never happen. Ever. In my life.

The technical reason why remastering is valuable is because, up to around the late 90s, there was this endpoint called zero, and you couldn't get louder than zero.