A biography for James Murphyhasn’t been written yet.
“I don't see myself as necessarily a very creative person. I'm a technical guy.”
“I have a thing about inane lyrics - the world doesn't need them.”
“I like clever lyrics, funny lyrics, dumb lyrics. I can never put my finger on what I like about them.”
“Producing is always really hard, and you can never tell who's going to be easy to get along with and who's going to be difficult.”
“If being in a band was my job, then I would quit. This is not a good job. A good job is in financial management.”
“One of my favorite photographers is Ruvan Wijesooriya, who takes most of the LCD photos. His work is incredibly colloquial and raw.”
“I love rock. I love the music that was born out of the latter part of the 20th century. It means a lot to me.”
“I had friends who were jocks or whatever... Then, around 12 or 13, kids get cliquish and cruel, and that disgusted me. It seemed a reprehensible use of one's arbitrary social status. So I got really aggressive about it and became more of a weird kid.”
“I was into punk rock my whole life. I never listened to the Eagles. I never listened to things that were getting Grammys. So getting a Grammy nomination wasn't bad, it just wasn't meaningful.”
“I started playing in my first band when I was 12. I like to date myself by saying I was in a New Age band when it wasn't ironic; it was actually called new wave because it was new.”
“Making people dance has another function that has nothing to do with art, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. It's like food - if you're not eating it, you're doing something wrong. If they're not dancing, something is wrong.”
“After being in a 'professional rock ensemble,' there's a great joy in making music with friends, without any release plan.”
“Titles are relatively arbitrary to me; they take on meanings that aren't really my meanings. 'Sound Of Silver' was just, like, I made the studio silver, and I wanted the record to sound 'more silver.'”
“When I was a kid, when the Walkman came out, I was sold. I listened to music 24 hours a day.”
“LCD is a band about a band writing music about writing music.”
“Even in the band I was in when I was a kid, I'd be telling everyone what to do. I'd be leaning over the drums, telling them to tune their guitars, micromanaging.”
“I never did albums fully at DFA; I always would go someplace else so I wasn't making a record in my office, basically.”
“I don't want to be subsumed into popular culture and played on the radio next to some garbage music.”
“I know it seems like LCD Soundsystem sold millions and millions of records, but we didn't. I'm not a wealthy person.”
“I write songs all the time. Sometimes they're just weird songs I sing while changing a baby, or songs about annoying things that I sing to myself, or to friends while sitting at a bar, or about Christmas or New York.”