What makes me laugh about politics, sometimes, is it seems like once we get to a point where our problems are seemingly unsolvable, it's because we're looking through a wrong point of view. If we turn the thing on its head, then maybe we might see it differently.
— Dave Davies
When people get disillusioned and get insecure and content about the future, they tend to brood about what might have been.
I can't stand tribute bands. It's nice, bless 'em, but it's not right. They can't capture the right spirit. You never see a tribute comedian, a tribute Les Dawson.
There's no point waking up in the morning feeling sorry for yourself.
My family making music was like a folk background, really: banging on tabletops, playing banjo and all kinds of things.
I was a big, big fan of Jimmy Burton. Anything with him on, I used to perk up and listen to it over and over and over again.
Some of those early Kinks songs, we were barely in tune.
I wasn't a very academic kid, and music was the way for all that feeling and angst and sex and love and anger to be channelled.
Our problems stem from our childhood. Ray was, for so long, the only boy. Then I arrive and take all his limelight away from him. That must have quite a profound effect. I sometimes think that Ray was only happy for three-and-a-half years in his life. And those were the three-and-a-half years before I was born.
Exmoor and Dartmoor are sacred, magical places. You find a truer side of yourself there.
We've always had our hardcore fans. But the general public has a love-hate thing about the 'Kinks.' It always leaves people with a question mark on their heads.
Even if we are dead we help each other in some little way.
I think that what went wrong with religion is the same thing that went wrong with politics. Is that it became too money based and too controlling. It's just a weakness that we human beings have for control - we want one thing and then we want more and then we want more.
My perspective is that you should be IN the world, but not OF the world.
I love playing live now more than ever. I enjoy it, I think it keeps you young.
I think that things happen for a reason.
I've always been ready to embrace what's around the corner because it might be just the thing that I need to help me grow.
You have to take responsibility for how you act. You can't fix everyone.
You can't be glued in the '60s. Walking around, going up the pub or popping to Tesco in a hunting jacket.
My favorite part on 'Energy Fields,' at the end of the track is a little girl laughing, and to me, it's a child watching the world, her friends, and so-called grownup people, and the way they try to understand the world.
The artistic side of our family was very important because one person encourages the other. It was a vey enlightening place to be as a kid because of all the music and dancing, and my dad played banjo; my sisters played piano and sang.
I learned five chords; I thought I knew it all.
I thought I'd use music to confront the problems that I faced, and it helped. I found a more healing mindset, and it did rejuvenate me.
As an individual, I think you have to find your own path. I like the simplicity and purity of Hinduism and many elements of Buddhism. These are all means of accessing spiritual energy.
I was interested in psychic things and in spiritualism even as a boy. I'd started doing yoga by the early 1970s.
Sometimes when you're with the same old people, you get the same old thing.
A lot of our music came out of a lot of weird psychology and weird emotions. When you play the whole body of work, you get tossed all over the place. It's not easy listening. It's not even comfortable to listen to.
People that have had genuine abduction experiences that I've met that seem very genuine to me, but they're just confused about why it happened. I've met a lot of people like which I regard as being very genuine... but there's a lot of crazy people out there.
I think people are turning inward more now cause the world's got in such a weird, crazy state. I think its making people think more about their life and what it is really that they are doing. And how do we interact with a world that's going crazy? It's a very important time.
A lot of people that embark on spiritual endeavors tended to, especially in the '60s and '70s, they tended to give up what they had before and cut themselves off from their lives, previous life as it were. But, I don't think that one should do that.
You can always improve on something, the technology is different today, but I would leave it well alone. If there was something that was incomplete, that might be interesting... because I do that on my website.
Good rock music always tends to be around.
I'm very interested in science fiction, and I like new things. I've never been a really sentimental person.
Science has proved that everything is energy, and now they have dark energy, dark matter. They don't call it all-embracing consciousness; they call it dark because they can't measure it. You know, paint it black.
It's the easiest thing in the world to be down about anything. I think the body responds to good vibes.
We need balance. We need to balance our inner life with our outer life. Nature is always sitting there waiting to help us, but we have to do the work. Nature is probably the greatest teacher that we'll ever have... the earth and nature.
'Hound Dog' is a really short record, and most singles didn't last three minutes.
I always loved the guitar, from when I was quite little. My dad had a G banjo at the house that he played. When he had parties, my sisters always played piano, and my dad played banjo.
How could I not love my own brother? I just can't stand to be with him.
I have always worked with energy. Everything is energy. Buddhism. Christ teachings. These are foundation stones for a spiritual life.
Being alone on the moors is scary; as the rain clouds settle in, it makes you realise your place in nature.
All good art, to me, is uncertainty.
We obviously need more love in the world. And we obviously need more compassion and understanding. Our leaders need to really address these issues properly now.
I think there's been a big problem between religion, or organized religion, and spirituality.
What I believe in touches many aspects of religious and spiritual thought. Mainly I'm influenced and inspired by the eastern yogi's aspect of mysticism, Which is, I think, the future.
Ray is very secretive about his ideas - why not, the times that the Kinks have been ripped off, especially in the early years, it makes you a little bit cautious about telling anybody what you're doing. And that's understandable.
I don't like people telling me what to do, or trying to MAKE me write songs.
Working with the Kinks, there always seemed to be some kind of automatic process at work. Ray and I had this telepathy happening for a long time, where one of us always knew what the other could do with something.
