With 'Boxer,' we made the kind of music we wanted to make and didn't really worry about what the expectation was. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Early on, I was a performer playing classical music. It's in my DNA in a way that I can't begin to extract… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
We always say that National songs have to have a heart, that we don't make cold songs. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Part of what I enjoy about writing classical music is communicating through the score and collaborating with such amazing musicians. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
If you make rock music with guitars in it, the Radiohead comparison is inevitable. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
As a pop musician, as someone who makes songs, the best ideas are the simplest. They come, and that's the lightning bolt… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
In a way it's the emotional feeling that you get in a good rock song or folk song, there's just nothing that… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
When I'm writing instrumental music, I try to find musical and non-musical inspirations. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
I've got this diverse education, growing up in classical music and existing between that and music that is more visceral, so for… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
A lot of people ask how I ended up doing classical music given that I'm in a rock band. The truth is… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
When I'm writing for certain instruments, you want to write within what you know about that instrument but also challenge the player.… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
There is a reactionary conservative side of classical music, which is not the most exciting side of it. The side that draws… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Obviously there are pieces of classical music that are some of the most beautiful music ever written, for me anyway is a… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Obviously, any living musician born after 1960 has been touched by rock and roll. It's the music of our time, and it's… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
I can imagine myself as an old man writing music for choir or orchestra. I don't know that I'll be touring six… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Me, who's educated classically, I went toward rock music 'cause it was sort of a natural evolution from where I was playing… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Playing pentatonic scales over orchestral music is not something I want to do or listen to. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Working with Bob Weir directly, we learned how high the bar is for Dead music. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
For many people in the music conservatory world, the message was always, Focus! 'You can't do everything; you really need to specialize.'… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
It doesn't necessarily take four years to write a good piece of music. It might take four hours. It just depends on… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
For a composer of concert music, 40 is actually very young. But for a rock musician, 40 is almost past due, where… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
I came from a classical background, and I was teaching and earning a living out of music at a certain level, so… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
I think that place is a huge part of pretty much any musician's work, in how one responds to an environment, whether… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
There is much more immediate access to creative music through online communities and blogs which have touched all corners of the music… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
My background in music is classical - I did graduate school in music. At that time, I was studying composition, but I… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
For me, the exhausting thing about touring is the sitting around, which is why working on my concert music is really great… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
The thing I realised about composition is, we remember most composers for four bars of music. Four singable bars of music. Pretty… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Being a classical musician, you can go to school for it; you can go get a degree. Even as a composer, there… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
There is a kind of adventure- and risk-seeking audience in classical contemporary music that is really empowering and part of what draws… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
In terms of the music, it feels almost like trouble's a good thing - you never know when a song is going… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
It’s important to me that people hear my music on its own merit and not in relation to another project I’ve done.… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
A good song is a nice set of chords and some good lyrics; a great song is a song that reinvents itself… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
When I'm scoring something like a string quartet, it's all notated music, so it's meticulously written in the score, which is very… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
When working with classical musicians, it is important to be clear as possible in the score about what my intentions are. Because… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share Image
Obviously there are pieces of classical music that are some of the most beautiful music ever written, for me anyway is a lot of… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
Typically, people think, 'Oh the hippies and the punks hated each other,' or that those things don't go together musically. Sometimes that is true,… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
When I'm writing instrumental music, I try to find musical and non-musical inspirations. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
With 'Boxer,' we made the kind of music we wanted to make and didn't really worry about what the expectation was. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
In terms of the music, it feels almost like trouble's a good thing - you never know when a song is going to surprise… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
When we learned to play in bands, what we were covering was equal part the Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead. That would defy… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
I love the physicality of instruments, and instruments as objects, like dancers are bodies. — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
Me, who's educated classically, I went toward rock music 'cause it was sort of a natural evolution from where I was playing with my… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
My background in music is classical - I did graduate school in music. At that time, I was studying composition, but I was studying… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
I've got this diverse education, growing up in classical music and existing between that and music that is more visceral, so for sure, I've… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
A good song is a nice set of chords and some good lyrics; a great song is a song that reinvents itself over time.… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
The thing I realised about composition is, we remember most composers for four bars of music. Four singable bars of music. Pretty much any… — Bryce Dessner Copy Share
