Max Tundra Quotes

Here's the thing with lyrics: Words are just another musical instrument.

A lot of student films in art shows are samey. It's a look at the life of someone making these boring films.

It's easy to not work on my album. I go out to the cinema, catch up with friends, eat, watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - that sort of thing.

I'm actually embarrassed by the idea of writing songs about myself - I imagine someone hearing them and thinking This guy is a bit self-obsessed. I don't know if I really have a persona, in that respect. I want to just make the music and hide away.

Making music is a total hassle, really.

Most of the lyrics are rooted in my own experiences. But there is some sheer fabrication.

I hope nobody I wrote about becomes too upset.

Someone explained parallax error to me, and I thought Ah, with a cheap camera, it would be pretty easy to behead someone.

There was a time when beheadings were in the public mind because people around the world were getting their heads cut off for various reasons.

What bugs me are parodies - they're never as special as the original thing.

The internet becomes too arch. The clip is uploaded and reuploaded endlessly with banner headlines and crappy 3-D graphics. Stuff rots in this supposedly clinical space.

I don't think of my music as something that works well in the background. And because a lot of it isn't in 4/4, people might not like to dance to it.

I might've set out to write a particular song about a particular girl, but my experience will run out after four lines, so instead of getting obsessed with the girl, I write about the clothes I'm wearing.

It'd be tricky to read into my lyrics - some are autobiographical, but sometimes I just like the sound of words.

When I've got massive projects to be getting on with, I find myself open to distractions, particularly when deadlines are involved.

The nice thing about working for a label like Domino is that there's no pressure: They've got a roster of 40 active bands, and they can bang out an album or single in a week, so it's not the end of the world to not have a Max Tundra album in 2005.

I got really paranoid, burning every song onto three CDs and hiding them in various places around the house just in case I got burgled and there was, y'know, a fire in my bedroom. I told friends where I was hiding them in case I was killed.

When I'm in my studio, it usually feels like a hassle to actually press all the buttons and make music come out the other end.

I love the finished product, but I find working in the studio a chore - I use an old-fashioned setup, so the recording process can be frustrating.

The program I use is called MED Soundstudio. It's basically a column of numbers that relate to pitch, duration, the type of sound. If I want to play a chord, I have to press keys on a keyboard - like a computer keyboard, on my Amiga - that relate to sharps and flats, note by note.

I'm a bit of a control freak, so I always appreciate being inside the nuts and bolts of the music - I don't like newer programs that paper over your cracks.

I love playing the drums - I really get a lot out of it - but I don't think I'm a good enough drummer to be playing live drums on all 10 tracks on my album.

I love playing piano, too, but I don't sit around doing it all day. Part of that's because I don't have one in my house - I only have synths.

Usually I'm only using my instruments when I'm recording or playing a gig.

People call me a bedroom electronic musician, which I suppose I am. But I hate most electronic music; I find it really boring.