The lyrics are what I work on the hardest, but I'm not trying to make a perfectly clear message or anything like that. In fact, I'm usually trying to avoid saying something too directly, because usually that rings false anyway.
— Matt Berninger
When it comes to lyrics, I just write down a lot of things, and only a very tiny fraction of it, I think, is any good.
Usually, writing lyrics for me is like bleeding drop by drop from the forehead.
Once you do have a child, you want to talk about every detail of it. And it is really boring to all your friends, and it should be. I was really worried about even going there at all.
Sometimes you have to wear what you want.
A suit is a sign of respect.
I don't play an instrument. I pretend. I try to.
The same song can have drastically different feels and personalities just by changing some minor things. A different drumbeat or some vocal overdub could completely transform the song.
Lyrics need to be good, but they don't need to be obvious right away.
At first, when 'Boxer' came out, people were a little let down, and we worried that it might be the end for us. But then it began to grow on people. 'Boxer' bought us our creative freedom.
A lot of the lyrics I write involve images that just swing the song in a way that feels really good to me and there isn't a literal explanation. They're not riddles for the listener to solve.
I watched R.E.M. connect with the back row of a 50,000-seat venue.
Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave know best. Although I wear a lot of jeans, I've been told that Nick Cave doesn't own a pair and wouldn't be caught dead in denim.
A person with grace is somebody who's socially graceful or is a classy person, but sometimes you just feel the opposite of that, and you just feel like a jerk and a loser and a weirdo.
A lot of my lyrics are approximate meaning without me knowing why they sound right.
People will dig their heels in and fight for the things they love and against the things they hate.
I do a lot of editing and switching around and putting little pieces together to get the right mood and personality, and it takes me forever to get a song finished.
'Alligator' was the first record that anyone paid attention to, and it seemed like it was the screamy songs that got us that attention.
I don't love being on the road.
I'm a stubborn guy that loses his temper, sometimes driving the station wagon in the wrong direction for hours and hours and never admitting that he's gone the wrong way.
My favourite store? Seize Sur Vingt in New York. They make most of my suits, and they are really cool people.
I love to make songs out of some of those shadows - you know, some of the things you lie awake thinking about, social anxieties and romantic insecurities and all that stuff.
Getting on stage and performing and standing under lights is such an unsettling experience - in a good and bad way - but it's the only place I can go to feel comfortable.
The truth is, I'm pretty lighthearted.
