Jim James

“I've never stared out at the ocean while I've made a record before - that enhances things in a strange way.”

“Love is love. Let's take it any way we can get it.”

“For a lot of people, life's been pretty good. There hasn't been true terror right in your face.”

“I tried to score a few films with this composer Brian Reitzell here in L.A. We made a bunch of music we really loved, but we got fired from the film for being too weird.”

“The first two My Morning Jacket records were basically demos.”

“I've gotten into doing electronic books and audiobooks, so I have an iPad. I still love reading a real book, but when you travel, it's better than carrying around a bunch of books.”

“I think we're going to look back on the Internet in 50 to 100 years as a big mistake.”

“The band can't exist without the crowd, and the crowd wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the band, and it really is something magical that people need.”

“I think maybe the vehicle for me was 'Sam Cooke's Greatest Hits.' It has a song called, 'Touch the Hem of His Garment.' Do you know that song? I kind of got obsessed with that song and started exploring and getting more of his old recordings with the Soul Stirrers and really getting into that super, super deeply.”

“After I wake up, I always meditate.”

“I love playing music with people, but I also just love the art and meditation of being alone and working on stuff.”

“I'm grateful to be successful, and I'm grateful that we can make a living, and I hope we can maintain our integrity forever. That's really my only dream. The notion of bigness or smallness, I feel like that comes and goes in such waves that are kind of out of my control.”

“There were lots of songs that were on 'It Still Moves' that I had written, and we had played - rehearsed, but also played live a couple of times - that could've gone on 'At Dawn', but we always knew we wanted to make a record that was more quote-unquote 'rock n' roll.'”

“I guess people have a hard time dealing with humour in music. But sometimes life is depressing, and sometimes life is fun, is about just laughing with your friends, and I wanted to express that as well as the darker stuff.”

“It's a joy, the process itself, even instrumentally, playing and constructing music. It's just so beautiful to me.”

“I've got a studio at home, and I'm always recording.”

“Once all the power goes out, there will still be human beings standing together around a campfire, playing acoustic guitars.”

“There's so much chaos and trouble in the world right now, and we need to broadcast as much peace and love, too.”

“'It Still Moves' is really the only record in our catalog that I've always felt I wanted to remix. Part of the fun of that record was that we recorded it all to tape, and it was all super-duper organic.”

“I always think of albums as the format. I think it's perfect. I don't think you can tamper with that. It's not just sound, the analog, which is so much richer. It's the format. You're constrained by just 45 minutes, and it's perfect to me. I don't want to listen to any more than, and I live and breathe music.”