All James Mercer Quotes
- The thing that inspires me most is empathizing with people's flaws and seeing how they deal with them. That sort of connection you feel with… Connection
- I do like talking with friends about big concepts, you know, the stuff that will ruin a party. To me, the party hasn't begun until… Begun
- There's no real reason for me to be so obsessed with trying to understand the true nature of things. You can live a perfectly happy… Confused
- I was really shy as a kid. Kid
- I kinda learned to sing singing to Echo and the Bunnymen songs and Smiths songs: Morrissey would be a big favorite. Big
- Honestly, humans are social creatures that really crave intimacy, and I think that the friends I have who are trying to somehow go it alone… Alone
- My dad was a Navy munitions officer, and by the end of his career, he was a specialist in nuclear weapons. Career
- I tend to write a pretty half and half split of, like, slow, morose things and then sort of more upbeat stuff. Half
- I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording. Alone
- Collaboration is something I missed at one point in The Shins. I really wanted to have that experience again, you know, not having everything rely… Collaboration
- So happy that Broken Bells is a thing in my life and really cool in so many ways. Not only, like, as something to sell… Approach
- I have no ethics when it comes to art. You just do what you can to make it as beautiful as you can. Art
- When I started The Shins, it really was just me, alone, but it was still The Shins. I was totally recording stuff and writing songs… All
- I know that there are a lot of sort of silly things that one thinks as a music listener about bands. I am a fan… Bands
- My attempt at really doing classic sort of songwriting is Shins stuff. Attempt
- The love you have for your kids is so overwhelmingly powerful that it alters your perspective. The dark things going on in the world become… Alters
- Until having kids, I had never really thought about mortality so much. Kids
- Life is sad. People, you know, are going to pass, and you know that you will one day. Day
- The way I was brought up, there was a little bit of prodding to do something more practical, and I wasted a lot of time… Bit
- I think that once you start writing songs, you start developing a library of ideas that you can go and take from, so it gets… Developing
- My whole goal is to make good records and keep myself inspired and able to accomplish what I need to accomplish. Able
- You have to keep the recording process open. If you make too many decisions before you go in, you can lose out on those serendipitous… Always Required