Dave Wirth
There's a great line in a Destroyer song: "Formative years wasted / In love with our peers, we tasted / life with the stars." I couldn't have found language that was more clear about the whole idea of what we were doing. The twenty people who understand what you're talking about are the twenty most important people in the world. Maybe that's the difference between professional culture and outsider culture. Our antennae were tuned very specifically for like minds, as opposed to sending out a signal to convert people. There are some kinds of art that are trying to find their peers, and there are other kinds that are trying to make peers.1
This quote is from the insanely readable book, Our Noise, the Story of Merge Records.
Jenny Toomey is the author of the quote, and she raises a fantastic argument. I wish more Austin, Texas based musicians would think deeper about the implications: What are you trying to do with your music? Are you trying to connect with other people, or are you looking to be famous?
1. Cook, McCaughan & Ballance, Our Noise, the Story of Merge Records, 15.
