Caroline Polachek Quotes

“A lot of the music comes out of that conflict of wanting this other thing and feeling guilty about wanting it, and then it guiding me somewhere despite my kicking and screaming.”

“And a pang is ultimately private. It's not a thing that gets broadcast to the world; it's a kind of internal alarm that sounds when something has to change and it has to change fast.”

“Arcadia' was started and finished at the Medici villa in Rome.”

“As soon as we wrote the beat for 'Romeo,' I knew it was a running song. I was thinking about it in terms of the body. What do you want to do? It's not a song you want to dance to.”

“Ashes Of Love has much more hot-blooded vocal than what PC Music is known for, and a much harder production than what I usually do, so I was fully prepared for people to hate it.”

“Before I play a show, I put on lavender oil – it's sort of a ritual.”

“Being a musician, there aren't that many ways for me to consciously use a more strategy, math-based part of my brain.”

“Driving in Chicago wins over New York; people are so fast. It's almost like there's a subliminal street racing culture here. They drive like comic book characters.”

“Everything I've done that I'm proud of is everything I've been the most hands-on with, so I'm just following that, really.”

“Growing up, I was so compelled by artists whose looks were inseparable from their music. Bjork was my hero.”

“I actually don't live anywhere. I live on the road.”

“I almost gave up on 'Door' so many times. I couldn't crack it. It started out as a simple song with just a chorus-verse-chorus. I felt like it needed to transform more.”

“I guess I've gotten older and more sentimental, and I've realized that the love song is just the modern equivalent of a devotional.”

“I guess this song isn't about anything necessarily sad, but it makes me sad just because it makes me think about how inaccessible the past is, but it's called 'Boy Child' by Scott Walker.”

“I just started studying opera – very, very much as hobby – and for some reason I've been gravitating toward French composers, like a lot of Debussy and Faure. I find it a really sinuous and spooky language to sing in.”

“I kind of think that's the best way to operate; even when I'm in sessions writing with other artists, I'm always pulling from the kind of emotions that are the most raw in my own life and offering them up in the studio.”

“I never imagined that I could ever have a career in music. I always thought it was like a mafia, that you had to sell your soul and know the right people and be in the right place.”

“I really admire people's interactions with technology that aren't tech-centric but use it as a tool.”

“I really like when the lyrics in the music have an interesting relationship between one another – where they contrast each other.”

“I remember thinking that writing love songs was stupid and cliche, and that my job was to not write love songs, because there are enough of them.”

“I studied art in Belgium from the age of 17 to 18, and I learned French when I was there. Very reluctantly so. I didn't do a very good job. For the first six months I was very depressed and couldn't speak to anyone, and then it kinda hits you.”

“I think as I get older, I'm just going to start making smooth, new age music – no joke.”

“I think that's a big trope in pop music: the blaze-of-glory breakup. It's not one that I particularly identify with, but it's definitely possible.”

“I think women are taught in the music industry that once you're 35, you've expired, and I'm here to prove that factually incorrect.”

“I used to obsessively draw. I was really good at it.”

“I want to keep different options for different futures open all the time.”

“I wanted the karaoke-style lyrics in our music videos for two reasons: first, cause nobody has lyric booklets anymore, and when I was growing up, lyric booklets were like little bibles. I want people to be able to access our lyrics without having to go to some gnarly website with banner ads.”

“I was actually really stunned that my label suggested 'Door' as the single to lead with, as it's such a long and winding song.”

“I was born in New York, but I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut – that's where I went to school. I remember begging my way into choir in the 3rd grade, because you're not supposed to get in until 4th grade.”

“I was into music from a very early age, and I was also – I don't really talk about this that much – really into horses. I learned a lot about rhythm and about voice from that.”