Ezra Koenig

Well, growing up in the '90s, my first true love was ska music. ”

Growing up listening to rap music, you almost feel like you should have haters. That's an important part of being a successful musician. It's a good thing, I guess. ”

I grew up listening to Jay-Z, and I think the first time I really became obsessed with learning and thinking about lyrics was when I started listening to rap; I was 11, 12, and started becoming aware of music beyond the familiar. ”

It's pretty cool that people will pay for something even though they don't have to. It's totally different now to back in the day. Now you're paying for a record because you believe in the band. In the future that will be the only time people will pay for albums, because there's some kind of connection. ”

If kids and teenagers can get into a band, it's probably not because they think it's brainy. ”

It's cool to have instruments lying around because they give you different ideas. ”

I remember the first pangs of stress arriving at the end of school. Once I graduated I had to get a full-time job, worry about health insurance, saving money, paying rent - things I'd never thought about before. ”

Musicals don't get enough credit for being so surreal. It's like an alternate universe. ”

As an artist you have the luxury of maybe presenting an issue in a certain way, as opposed to actually solving it. ”

It's so easy for anyone to deal with their own guilt of being a middle-class white music fan by pointing to other people who they perceive to be richer than them, whiter than them. ”