“I played ‘Angry Birds’ and tried to see what the hoopla was about.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’m about creating a body of work and moving on to the next thing.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Hanging out with the Trees is like hanging out with your family, and I hardly ever see my family.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It’s a lot easier to let someone else be Caesar.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Naturally, if I’m singing over really loud music, my approach is gonna be different than if I’m singing over some quiet acoustic music.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I enjoy watching basketball, yeah.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I prefer to stay in the here and now and move forward.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I think when people hear your music, sometimes they get deeply attached to it and think they know something about you, that you’re kindred spirits or something.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When they’re listening to your music all the time, you become part of their life, and some people get obsessed.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I just see what’s in front of me. That’s what I’m happy with.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Usually, I write the music and am involved in the production.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’ve always said everything happens the way it’s supposed to.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It isn’t important to me how people respond to my work.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Nothing seems too weird to me anymore.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I guess if you live long enough, anything can happen.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’m open to life.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Whether I live there again or not, Seattle will always be my home.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’ve learned that sticking around counts for something.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’ve always been haunted by the devastating voice and beautiful songs of Tim Hardin. I can’t imagine anyone hearing him and not feeling the same.”
― Mark Lanegan
“’Gargoyle’ was inching towards a more accessible record.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I would only tell a story if I was being mercilessly heckled. That’s the only time I would talk to the audience.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It took me quite a while to find my natural voice. I’m glad I stuck around long enough to see that happen.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I didn’t always enjoy playing music with the Trees.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I was never super comfortable playing music in front of people anyway. Now I enjoy it, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to get past.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I wanted ‘Imitations’ to be a fully realized record from start to finish, with a cohesive sound and a sequence that took you from one song to the other, just like I would with a record of original stuff.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I enjoy the songs that I write, but I can never enjoy them the same way as other peoples’ songs.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It’s always fun to play songs by somebody else.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It was really difficult to sing; nobody showed me how to do it. I remember early Screaming Trees shows in the ’80s when I’d walk away with a pounding headache from trying to sing way out of my range.”
― Mark Lanegan
“If Brian Eno wanted to make a record, I’d definitely clear some time in my calendar. John Cale, too. Those guys consistently make great records, always doing their own thing.”
― Mark Lanegan
“What do I look for in a collaborator? Pretty much anyone who asks me to do something.”
― Mark Lanegan
“We’ve made records for years on a shoestring.”
― Mark Lanegan
“In real life, I’m far more lighthearted than I come across on the records.”
― Mark Lanegan
“The guys who spend their time brooding in their younger years either lighten up or go away.”
― Mark Lanegan
“You just realize that you don’t know everything there is to know. The older I get, the less I know, and that’s a good thing. When I was young, I knew everything, and everything wasn’t necessarily good.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I think I’ve just matured over the years.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’ve never been in charge. I’m just a lazy bastard.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’ve had songs that were spread out over a number of years, and I’ve written some in ten minutes, and everything in between.”
― Mark Lanegan
“There’s lots of singers that I love; I don’t know if I used any of them as role models. Maybe I would have been a better singer when I started if I had.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When I was a kid in the late ’60s and early ’70s, my parents and their friends would play the records of Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como, music with string arrangements and men singing songs that sounded sad whether they were or not.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I enjoy my own songs, but I can never love them in the way that I can love someone else’s song.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It’s a different kind of satisfaction, different kind of enjoyment than making your own songs, to remake someone else’s song that you really like.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When I do something, I do it for the specified amount of time, and then I do something else.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Usually I get asked to do stuff that’s cool, and if I ever can’t do something, it’s usually, because of logistics, I don’t have the time for it. Rarely do I get ask to do something that I’d rather not do. I usually do it if I feel that it’s something I can do.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I try and treat songwriting as something that I have to practise every day.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I like to fool myself into thinking that whatever happens is OK.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I think there’s something therapeutic in singing about anything, whether it’s what you’ve written or whether it’s someone else’s song. I find both satisfying in different ways.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I just sort of do what comes natural.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’m trying to learn how to read. I have a tutor out on the road. It is great.”
― Mark Lanegan
“You can only really sing about what you know; at least, I can.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I wasn’t the easiest guy to work with when I was younger.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I have a high tolerance for pain.”
― Mark Lanegan
“In 1997, I thought I’d never make another record.”
― Mark Lanegan
“My favorite record, growing up, was ‘Songs of the Haunted House,’ a Disney record that was just wackiness. It’s still one of my favorites, actually.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Everybody has unhappiness.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I was in trouble with the law from when I was real young.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’m not a human interest story, man. I’m just a musician trying to make some small records and be happy, be peaceful.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Me and Kurt Cobain were both listening to a bunch of Lead Belly and diggin’ it. We thought, ‘Let’s do an EP of all Lead Belly songs.’ We did a couple, and both of us were like, ‘Nah, this is a bad concept.’ We set it aside.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Usually I write on guitar.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Even when I’m making my own solo records, I’m collaborating with people. It keeps things interesting for me.”
― Mark Lanegan
“All the guys I know that play guitar are also secretly drummers and vice versa.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I enjoy working on whatever I’m working on.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I can’t say what people use the experience of listening to songs for, but I would never tell somebody what it is supposed to mean. That defeats the purpose of making it. Hopefully, whoever connects with it connects with it in their own way, and it can mean whatever it is supposed to mean to them.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When I was in high school, I took French. I barely passed and didn’t learn anything at all. There was a joke among me and my friends in the class that nothing sounded more ridiculous than a guy with a country accent speaking French.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’m not really interested in video games.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I was in Screaming Trees – I wasn’t really interested in playing quiet music in a live setting. But I would get asked quite often to do a show or open for somebody, and I always said no. Finally, I was asked if I would open for Johnny Cash, and Johnny Cash was one of my dad’s favorite heroes. So that’s why I started doing solo shows.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I was listening to punk rock in the ’70s as a young kid, but all by myself; I never met anyone that listened to that kind of music. Just by chance, I was in detention, and one of the guys in the class was Van Conner… I started talking to him and found out that we listened to some of the same music.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Doing something that’s physical but not necessarily mentally taxing – for me, it frees me up creatively.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Have I tried a black pudding? I’ll eat anything – I’m not finicky – but that’s not to say it takes any courage to eat black puddings because I find them delicious.”
― Mark Lanegan
“No one would hang out with me if I didn’t have music to make.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I don’t really take time off between records; it’s a compulsion for me.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’d wear nice clothes and brush my teeth more often if I cared about what people thought.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Collaboration is part of what keeps me interested in music.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I had a lot of jobs when I was younger. Where I grew up, there was a lot of agricultural jobs, so I worked on a lot of farms. I worked in the pea fields, harvesting peas.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I worked as a breakfast cook in a lot of different restaurants.”
― Mark Lanegan
“In 2005, I worked as a scenic painter for a while when I was taking a break from music.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When I think of a hit, I think of Madonna.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I’m not much of a partyer.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It’s satisfying and gratifying to make your own music, but I personally don’t get the same enjoyment out of the music that I make as I do from somebody else’s music that I like.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I used to throw a lot of stuff against the wall, just to see what ended up sticking; now I’m pretty much using everything that I create for a record.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When I’m listening to music for pleasure, I’m gonna listen to someone else’s music.”
― Mark Lanegan
“The first music I heard that made me put away my comic books and make music was original punk.”
― Mark Lanegan
“If I have one hero in music, it’s John Cale.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I have to have animals. They really make life worth living, and my world actually revolves around them. They know exactly when it’s time to get up, exactly when they’re supposed to get their food, and they let you know. Mine are right there in my face, first thing every morning.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to the point where I sent out Christmas cards! But if I did, they would have to feature my pets, that’s for sure.”
― Mark Lanegan
“One of my very favourite poets was a Massachusetts poet named Robert Lowell.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Yeah, well, I guess Andy Williams would be considered by some to be schmaltzy, but to me, he’s one of the greatest singers of all time. Just absolutely amazing. And if anyone doesn’t believe me, just YouTube him. He’s just one of a kind.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Soundgarden are good friends of mine.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I was excited when the Afghan Whigs got back together.”
― Mark Lanegan
“When I was a kid, I got caught shoplifting by a store security guard in Ellensburg. The next time I saw that store guard was when I got thrown in jail again – this time for not paying court fees. The guy happened to be in jail, too, right next to me. That’s what Eastern Washington is like – you never get too far away from anybody.”
― Mark Lanegan
“The Trees was four complete nuts. We didn’t have a damn thing in common except insanity. So we fought a lot. And we had two brothers – who fought like brothers.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Nobody likes to believe that they need anybody’s help in anything, and the smarter you are – and I’m not smart – or the tougher you are – and at times I thought I was pretty tough – the more trouble you have.”
― Mark Lanegan
“As far as I remember, I don’t have any warrants out for my arrest anymore. I can travel without fear.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I grew up in a small, rural community, where my extended family were mountain-folk type people, and some were very religious.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I hope I’m learning until I’m dead.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Talking about myself is difficult for me. It’s anti my true nature.”
― Mark Lanegan
“Most of the music I’m into wasn’t popular when it was being made.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I grew up a Seattle Sonics fan, in Washington state.”
― Mark Lanegan
“The Warriors team with Baron Davis, Matt Barnes, Stephen Jackson – that was an incredible team.”
― Mark Lanegan
“I like Jamal Crawford. He’s from Seattle, went to high school there, lived up there. He’s fantastic.”
― Mark Lanegan
“It’s hard not to respect Kobe Bryant’s game: He’s one of the all-time greats.”
― Mark Lanegan
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