A biography for Chris Thilehasn’t been written yet.
“Calvin is a constant reminder that I'm not always as present as I want to be. His go-to state of being is present. So I'm really grateful of that part of being his parent.”
“Everything in our lives is encouraging us to turn inward with all the technology that we have available to us.”
“A cocktail and an oyster is an awfully good thing after a park, especially one close to water.”
“Having small children, you start thinking about how everything in your life revolves around doing the best you can for this little being, trying to make a good life for that person.”
“The radio - this old piece of technology that's still crackingly current - gives you this communal experience in real time.”
“We don't have any genre-based allegiances.”
“The great musics of the world are great for very similar structural reasons: good melody, good harmony, and a balance of feminine and masculine energy.”
“I'm slow by nature; even if I write something fast, I'll let it sit for a month and hem and haw over it.”
“The constructive criticism that I take very seriously is from people I know and respect, and they don't have to be musicians. But I do have to know where they're coming from.”
“I'm always going to need to play in front of people.”
“I went through a political shift when I was nineteen or twenty. I felt a certain way, and after the shift, I felt the opposite way. And never once did someone yelling at me or making me feel stupid do anything other than reinforce the convictions I had. What did get to me was people listening to me.”
“Music should never be a dictatorship. It should be a symbiotic relationship between the musician and the audience.”
“I obviously love music very, very much.”
“What makes one type of music classical and one bluegrass and one folk - these things aren't what's important.”
“It seems like if they'd given Bob Dylan a pen and paper in the cradle that he would've come up with a great song. I'd love to write songs like that.”
“Tradition matters. To me it's not a limiting force; it's a springboard.”
“I can't listen to music while I'm doing something else. Well, unless I'm working out. But I, like, fall off the treadmill all the time if I'm listening to something that I like too much.”
“Improvisation is an important part of bluegrass, and I would hasten to add that classical music wasn't always such an improvisational void. Back in the day, everyone's cadenzas were improvised, and improvisation was taught in conservatories.”
“Everyone talks about how depressing Radiohead are. I don't hear it. They've created their own universe and it is dimly lit, but it's not inherently dark.”
“I would love to be one of those fellows who combine formal and folk music approaches.”