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" And over the last ten years, after my work with the Brodsky Quartet, I had the opportunity to write arrangements for chamber group, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, symphony orchestra even. "
Elvis Costello
Jazz
Group
Work
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" Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me. "
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" I find humming is very useful. "
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" I find it to be the ultimate backhanded compliment when you are compared against yourself. "
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" Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing. "
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" You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer-and that opportunity came this summer, when I was invited to perform at the Lincoln Centre festival in New York... three nights. "
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" People become so deeply attached to the sound of one period that they blow a fuse when you move on. I've heard people complain bitterly about recordings they haven't even heard. "
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" Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music. "
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Choices
" But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve. "
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Things
Delivery
Achieve
" And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music. "
Elvis Costello
Up
Curiosity
Searching
" You do have to be a bit careful with your voice. It is an instrument. "
Elvis Costello
You
Your
Instrument
" There was not a lot of rock n' roll in the house. Our parents didn't think it was very groovy, and I tend to agree with them. If you grew up with Charlie Parker, Bill Haley wasn't very hip. "
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Rock
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" I'd been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time. "
Elvis Costello
Time
People
Late
" My family calls me Declan. But most people call me E.C. I think it comes from my dad. It's an Irish convention. You usually call the first child by the initials. "
Elvis Costello
Think
You
Family
" These are the sort of things that push you on in music - the curiosity, a passion for new ideas. "
Elvis Costello
You
Passion
Curiosity
" Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back. "
Elvis Costello
Done
Back
You
" My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant. "
Elvis Costello
Ultimate
Vocation
Life
" I've always felt writing a song was a bit like going on location. That's true in an almost literal sense. Where you are seeps in somehow. "
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True
Writing
Like
" There's no such thing as an original sin. "
Elvis Costello
Original Sin
Original
Sin
" Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that. "
Elvis Costello
Happiness
Cookie
More
" I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies. "
Elvis Costello
I Believe
Music
Connected
" Smokey Robinson writes the heartfelt songs, whereas it was my job to write the songs about weakness and failure in love. "
Elvis Costello
Love
Weakness
Job
" It's what I do. I don't deserve any awards for this, it's just music. It's just writing songs. You sit down, you write a song, you record it. You tour and play the songs live, dress them up a bit differently, or dress them down. "
Elvis Costello
Writing
Song
Music
" I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused. "
Elvis Costello
Now
Amused
Disgusted
" Songs are more powerful than books. "
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More
Books
Than
" Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things. "
Elvis Costello
Together
Will
Singer
" It's a petty thing, but I wouldn't join the Scouts when I was a kid, 'cause you had to swear allegiance to the queen. I'm just not a royalist. I think it's idiotic, a hereditary principle. "
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Think
Kid
Principle
" The Internet is overrated. It's much smaller an innovation than people think it is. I don't think it's changed the way anybody makes music. "
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Think
Music
Way
" I've had an unusual life. A life far removed from most people's experience. "
Elvis Costello
Experience
Life
Most
" I get very frustrated by this term 'genre exercise.' I mean, what exactly is that? Genre is not really relevant when you are writing a song; hopefully you are doing it to explore something, to create something, and I don't agree that any of my albums are genre exercises. "
Elvis Costello
Doing
Exercise
Song