Joanna Newsom Quotes

• You should listen to a lot of different music.

  Joanna Newsom

• Well, yeah, I wanted to resist the urge to thicken everything up with instrumentation, because I just felt like I was interested in seeing how the songs did on their own.

  Joanna Newsom

• The way that words fit together is always interesting to me. I love words.

  Joanna Newsom

• The very first Walnut Whales recording was recorded just a few weeks after I had started singing, out of the blue, started singing. And the voice, you can hear how uncomfortable I am with it, and how terrified I am with it.

  Joanna Newsom

• People in San Francisco and the East Bay have shown interest, done interviews, and have come to shows. I guess that the news travels fast out of this island that we are on.

  Joanna Newsom

• People are often afraid for me. They think that I am going to break. I can make it through a set.

  Joanna Newsom

• Lyrics are very different. There is a clear line between that and a poem. Something that has been a source of great excitement and delight for me is this idea that I get to rhyme.

  Joanna Newsom

• It’s valid that the Strokes and the Pleased have been influenced by some of the same bands. But it’s invalid in the sense that we listen to the Strokes and try to sounds like them. I think that they are a good band.

  Joanna Newsom

• It’s totally different. I usually don’t tell people about the Pleased if they know me from the harp. And if they are there to see the Pleased, I usually don’t tell them about the harp. I am nervous that these people will expect something similar.

  Joanna Newsom

• In high school, we studied a lot of poetical forms. I was really interested in the math that was involved and the strange live break ups. That gave me a great amount of respect for a rhymed stanza.

  Joanna Newsom

• I wasn’t interested in writing music that wasn’t beautiful for me to listen to.

   

  Joanna Newsom

• I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.

  Joanna Newsom

• I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music.

  Joanna Newsom

• I started playing harp about fourteen years ago.

  Joanna Newsom

• I recorded harp first or singing first. I recorded it all together. Part of the reason is that I don’t know how to play the songs without also singing. I forget how they progress. I don’t think that any of them are verse, chorus, verse, and so on. They are not simple.

  Joanna Newsom

• I played piano for about two years when I was a kid. I didn’t play long enough to be really great.

  Joanna Newsom

• I have writing songs on my own for about six years.

  Joanna Newsom

• I have a recording that I did of instrumental songs.

  Joanna Newsom

• I have a deep rooted folk sensibility that I can’t get away from completely.

  Joanna Newsom

• I give away CDs at shows if someone wants a CD but doesn’t have any money. I wouldn’t want to do that forever.

  Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom (29)

Birth:	18th January, 1982
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Lyricist, Musician, Singer

About

Joanna Caroline Newsom was born in Nevada County, California, USA. She is an American musician (harpist, pianist, vocalist), lyricist and singer. She studied at Mills College, Oakland. She was exposed to music from a young age. Her father played the guitar and her mother was a classically trained pianist who played the hammered dulcimer, the autoharp and conga drums. Her albums list shown below: The Milk-Eyed Mender (single: "Sprout and the Bean"), Ys, Have One on Me, and Divers (singles: "Sapokanikan" and "Leaving the City"). She married to Andy Samberg in 2013. They have one daughter.

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