Enos Payne

Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.

I have no elitist concepts about Jazz. I would not be the musician I am today without experiencing invaluable music styles that are at the roots of African American black life and culture.

Art is a subject that is inundated with opinions. In fact, that’s all it is about is opinions.

It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists… I’ve worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.

I developed in my head that I’m never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it’s like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it’s more like concern. You’re concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time.

Dog spelled backward is God. That’s pretty heavy.

I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.

There are notes between notes, you know.

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

I think the idea of a love song has changed. Most of the love songs we all loved as kids would be classified as funeral dirges now, you know, really super slow. I think nowadays the ballad has changed. It can have some up-tempo, some drums, some other things. ‘Forever’ would still be considered a ballad, I guess, but the tempo is probably more of a mid-tempo. The content is love song. I don’t know how to write anything else.

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

The high note is not the only thing.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.

I’ve never thought the blues was a matter of copying other people. The blues singer should sing songs about his own life. And once the ball got rolling, I felt confident enough to do that as well as cover other people’s songs, and the tributes. You’ve got to think about representing your own life in the music, and for me that meant bringing in an element of jazz; I was brought up on jazz, it was my father’s work, it was in the house.

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.