Mat Kearney Quotes
-
I never wanted to be on an exclusively Christian label.
-
When I started forming my own taste, there was a period in high school when I listened to only rap and hip-hop, like A Tribe Called Quest.
-
I'm a '90s music kid.
-
I was always into poetry and writing. So the urgency of spoken word is something that really has always appealed to me.
-
Paul Simon is the king!
-
My songs have a layer of melancholy.
-
I do know great books help shape who I am and how I look at life.
-
Songs like 'Learn To Love Again' and 'Rochester' and some of the more gut-wrenching ones deal with the pain of the younger times of your life... trying to make sense of some the stuff we probably all went through.
-
I think you can hear all my hip hop influences in 'Just Kids.'
-
'Young Love' is about falling in love and dealing with your past so you can move forward. I wanted it to be a clear record.
-
Even on tour, where I perform songs from 'City Of Black And White,' I still do songs from 'Nothing Left To Lose.' I never turned my back on that material. On some albums, you change - that's all. The trick is to follow your heart and do what feels right.
-
I think my faith is a huge part of my music. But for me, it didn't make sense to be in any specific market. I write songs for a lot of different kinds of people.
-
I'm painfully a realist but ruthlessly an optimist. I think maybe it's because of my faith - I've always got the hope that there is something out there to make it all worthwhile.
-
I played soccer. I was really known as an athlete. It was a shock to people that I was doing music. They thought it was really odd.
-
Being from Oregon, it's part of who I am.
-
Ultimately, when you write from a vantage point of faith, humility, and openness to the world around you, people have to respond because those same truths are instilled in them.
-
Choosing an acoustic guitar for a live setting can be different from picking out one for recording. One doesn't always work for the other. The sonic properties can be vastly different.
-
The first record blew up and sold really well. 'City of Black & White' didn't sell as well, and that's when you wonder, 'Did I peak already?'
-
Generally, the songs that are the scariest ones are the ones that people connect to.
-
My dad was a scratch golfer growing up. When I'm on the road, I always bring my clubs with me.
-
There's this song called 'Brad Chester,' which is like the depths of my family. It comes from a very personal place.
-
I've never shaped or crafted my music for any specific group of people. Whoever connects with it is fine with me. I don't care where they come from.
-
I was an English major, and I always wrote poems.
-
I would sit in my dorm room and write songs. I loved it. I was learning to sing and play guitar. I was becoming a musician. I was the beginner who somehow could write a song.