Ikue Mori Quotes

I always wanted to get out of Tokyo and in 1977, New York seemed like the most interesting place to visit. I didn’t intend to live here- I just wanted to get out and see what was happening. I just happened to stay here then.

So now I don’t have time to practice drums. It’s been five years since I’ve touched the drums.

I’ve done some music for films and I really enjoy doing it.

I really didn’t intend to be a musician when I left Japan.

The way I create music is maybe like a painting, to compose in a more visual way. Basically it’s the music that I want to hear- that’s my inspiration and bottom line. I just try to get ideas from books, movies, paintings.

I’m interested in stories and the dark side of peoples’ minds.

I got tired of different drum sounds so you buy different effects for more manipulation.

Improvising things is always changing. A lot of momentum.

I still think that I’m playing instruments, not just pushing buttons and there it goes. It’s interactive and alive with the sound and the manipulation and it plays like instruments.

Blood and death. That moves me.

Mars is really different, into art. Lydia Lunch is more energy. James Chance is more commercial in a different way, in funk and jazz. They were all doing original things, trying to create their own sound and music. I think they’re all great.

Come to think of it, the way I play is like a drum machine- very mechanical.