John McNiel

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

Ideologies separate us. Art brings us together.

I guess what everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved. And to know that you loved me for my singing is too much for me. Forgive me if I don’t have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

What a fool I am to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

I play the way I do cause it allows me to come up w/ the sickest sounds possible. That’s the point now isn’t it?

You only get better by playing.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

Whenever I fill out the job description I put ‘songwriter’, never ‘singer’ or ‘artist.’ Singers come and go.

I am a devout musician.

Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.

I just fell in love with the integrity of the music and that was it.

Somebody asked me once, ‘Do you think that swing will ever come back?’ And I said, ‘Do you think the 1938 Form will ever come back?’

I am inclined to just write music and not worry about what people can or can’t do.