Katie Melua: Quotes about music

“I literally thought when I was 15 that I was a musical genius and I could change the world, but in fact you're not and you can't and you don't, and that realisation is almost heartbreaking.”

Katie Melua

Context: The last verse [In My Secret Life] completely got to me, about how we all have great ideals but in reality we end up conforming, following everyone else. We want to be stronger so we lead that life inside, thinking of ourselves as these great brave souls. I literally thought when I was 15 that I was a musical genius and I could change the world, but in fact you're not and you can't and you don't, and that realisation is almost heartbreaking.

World , Music , Change

“But a musician or someone who's into music is different.”

Katie Melua

Context: I don't think I could see myself with someone who's famous. I don't like the lifestyle and everything it stands for. Too superficial. That attention is too much. For me to go home and be surrounded by that sounds like a fucking nightmare. But a musician or someone who's into music is different.

Music

“The only trouble is that there's absolutely no passion, no soul and no excitement to be found here…Yet all good music should provoke some sort of emotion, and this [Nine Million Bicycles] provokes none whatsoever.”

Katie Melua

John Murphy
[John Murphy, Nine Million Bicycles review, http://www.musicomh.com/singles5/katie-melua-3_0905.htm, musicOMH, 2005-09-19]
About

Music , Soul , Passion

“Don't come into the music industry. It's almost inevitable that you'll psychologically be quite screwed up. Fame isn't a natural, human, behavioural thing. You get alienated. You're not really surrounded by truth.”

Katie Melua

[Bernard Perusse, A private path to fame, http://www.canada.com/cityguides/montreal/story.html?id=cb6fe4fc-01ef-4d0b-ad86-7ad091135e1b, The Gazette, canada.com, 2008-06-26]

Truth , Music , Nature

“I think I am easy to make fun of. I try not to pay too much attention. You can't let critics dictate what you do… The thing that fascinates me, is the emotion in music, the way it can make me cry or laugh or be angry. I'm not trying to be hip or cool, and I'm not scared to put everything I have into songs. Passion is the greatest thing that music can evoke. We live in a society where I think people often find it hard to express themselves, but sometimes a song can do that for you. It might not be groundbreaking, but there is something about the simplicity of presenting songs where it's all about the lyric and the melody. People don't need to get through a whole lot of production to get to the root of the song. It's just music doing what music does best… A lot of things in the mainstream are repetitive and soulless and have been churned out without any real conviction. It is really unfair to call Coldplay insufferable, when they obviously care about what they do. James [Blunt] too. Too much of the music industry is controlled by lawyers and businessmen, making music like it's a product on the factory line. That's what I call insufferable.”

Katie Melua

[Neil McCormick, Who is right? Critics or the public?, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/09/29/bmneil29.xml, The Telegraph, 2005-09-29]

People , Music , Way , Thinking

“Dancing is an important function of music, but so is crying.”

Katie Melua

[Jasper Gerard, Me and my motors, http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/features/article522083.ece, The Sunday Times, 2005-05-19]

Music , Dance , Cry