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" The fact that I'm often pushing my voice as hard as I can is from playing in nightclubs in Albuquerque where you don't have a good sound system. "
James Mercer
Voice
Good
You
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" 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 on me. I wanted to have a partner. "
James Mercer
Experience
Collaboration
Me
" 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 of many bands. "
James Mercer
Fan
Silly
Things
" 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 records and be a band and whatnot, but just to give me an outlet and give me a fresh approach on things. "
James Mercer
Happy
Cool
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" I've never been one to think it was cheating to sample this or to loop the drum part there - I've always done that. Even using four-track cassette recorders, I was always doing whatever I could to make it as good as I could. "
James Mercer
Done
Good
Think
" For the longest time, I didn't even want to admit I was serious about music. Before the Shins, I would tell myself, 'Oh, I'm going to figure something out someday.' I had this romantic vision of being this old dude maybe making guitars or something. "
James Mercer
Myself
Time
Music
" Maybe it's just parenthood that puts you in a situation where you just have to develop a new attitude, I guess, about things. "
James Mercer
Situation
Attitude
New
" For some reason, it seems like pop writers, it's like they just get worse or something over time. And then you're really jealous of movie directors whose careers seem to grow and they'll be 70 years old and still doing these incredible jobs. I'm going to reverse that, I hope. "
James Mercer
Doing
Grow
Hope
" The part of modern pop music I don't know much about is hip hop. "
James Mercer
Music
Much
Modern
" My hope is that one day I'll be able to work and have a quieter life, but still a creative life. "
James Mercer
Work
Creative
Day
" My attempt at really doing classic sort of songwriting is Shins stuff. "
James Mercer
Stuff
Doing
Classic
" I have no ethics when it comes to art. You just do what you can to make it as beautiful as you can. "
James Mercer
You
Art
Beautiful
" I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording. "
James Mercer
People
Me
Together
" 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 as The Shins and all of that. So the beginning inception of the whole thing was some sort of a lie, I guess. "
James Mercer
Me
Alone
Beginning
" I kinda learned to sing singing to Echo and the Bunnymen songs and Smiths songs: Morrissey would be a big favorite. "
James Mercer
Sing
Echo
Big
" I was really shy as a kid. "
James Mercer
Really
Kid
Shy
" I've always sort of felt like what the Shins is, I guess, is a vehicle for my writing. "
James Mercer
Always
Like
Vehicle
" 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 are suffering for it. "
James Mercer
Think
Suffering
Trying
" My dad was a Navy munitions officer, and by the end of his career, he was a specialist in nuclear weapons. "
James Mercer
He
Career
Nuclear Weapons
" I most enjoy sitting down with the acoustic guitar and just fiddling around and trying to come up with something like a hook or some sort of melodic line. That's something that I do habitually. "
James Mercer
Guitar
Trying
Down
" There's not a lot of thinking that I need to do away from the studio on Broken Bells stuff. "
James Mercer
Need
Stuff
Thinking
" I'm real happy. I've been lucky in love, and I've got a wonderful kid now, and things have been going well. "
James Mercer
Real
Lucky
Love
" I don't like the idea of a singer-songwriter record. I don't picture myself that way, and it's not my favorite sort of look, I guess. It's really just an aesthetic thing. "
James Mercer
Way
Picture
Aesthetic
" Life is sad. People, you know, are going to pass, and you know that you will one day. "
James Mercer
Life
Know
You
" 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 someone when you realize that maybe even the negative things that they've said or done are because of insecurities or injuries they've endured. "
James Mercer
You
Negative
Injuries