Bryce Dessner

“Playing pentatonic scales over orchestral music is not something I want to do or listen to.”

“In terms of identity, I'm the same person no matter what I'm doing.”

“As much as you try to organize your life, life will surprise you.”

“I think that place is a huge part of pretty much any musician's work, in how one responds to an environment, whether it be your actual surroundings or the more figurative place we're all living in.”

“I've got this diverse education, growing up in classical music and existing between that and music that is more visceral, so for sure, I've always been interested in music from other cultures.”

“For me, the exhausting thing about touring is the sitting around, which is why working on my concert music is really great - and also seeing concerts and seeing friends and, whenever possible, getting out to see a museum.”

“When I'm writing for certain instruments, you want to write within what you know about that instrument but also challenge the player. Something like 'Aheym' is very virtuosic - but because I have a history of performing music, I don't like unplayable music.”

“There is much more immediate access to creative music through online communities and blogs which have touched all corners of the music world including contemporary classical.”

“With 'Boxer,' we made the kind of music we wanted to make and didn't really worry about what the expectation was.”

“I can imagine myself as an old man writing music for choir or orchestra. I don't know that I'll be touring six months out of the year in a rock band when I'm 60.”

“We've gotten better as a live band. The songs have been allowed to grow with our audience. I don't think I would have done it any other way.”

“There are all kind of corners of the musical world that are deeply influenced by the Dead that one wouldn't expect. Lee Ranaldo is a crazy Deadhead.”

“I think that becoming a successful rock band is a little like becoming a professional athlete. Nobody plans on it.”

“Working with Bob Weir directly, we learned how high the bar is for Dead music.”

“Bands like Arcade Fire finding a larger audience has opened a lot of doors. They've empowered a whole community in Montreal.”

“Nobody plans on playing their own songs in front of thousands of people.”

“Part of what I enjoy about writing classical music is communicating through the score and collaborating with such amazing musicians.”

“There is a reactionary conservative side of classical music, which is not the most exciting side of it. The side that draws me in, there's a real encouragement of risk-taking, going back to masters of that tradition like Beethoven and Bartok and Stravinsky.”

“I'm not trying to take over the world, but I find it really rewarding to write, and I thrive on learning.”

“When we learned to play in bands, what we were covering was equal part the Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead. That would defy the logic that somehow these things don't fit in the same musical well.”