Ezra Furman

We spent a lot of time making 'Transangelic Exodus' and toward the end of it, my ability and my love for music - that is, just garage music, direct and immediate - started to feel neglected. ”

I get stage fright really bad sometimes, so touring has been hard on me in a lot of ways. But despite that, I love performing. ”

I love obsessive fandom because I'm an obsessive fan who flips out over music. ”

I love it when people write rapturously about music they love. ”

I don't think I'll ever be able to fully explain the way that the Velvet Underground's records opened a door in my head. But it has something to do with Lou Reed as a mythic figure: a person who fitted no category, who defied limits and trends and definitions. ”

My bassist Jorgen Jorgensen opened up my life to a lot of great, obscure old soul records. ”

In terms of keeping kosher, I've basically just been vegetarian. I want to be fully vegetarian anyway, though sometimes my mom makes chicken soup and I have to eat it. I just love it. ”

I see a skill developing of writing about not just feelings that I'm feeling, but things that I deeply care about as well. ”

One of my goals in making music is to make the world seem bigger, and life seem larger. ”

I'm in this effort to unify my life and to live day to day in a disciplined way, to be real at all times, not just in front of people, or not just in a synagogue. ”