Sxip Shirey Quotations

In many ways I'm an experimental and new music composer that comes from a rural tradition rather than an urban one.

I live in a neighborhood that's really filled with sound - there's a lot of Jamaican auto body shops, and the guys next door play hip hop.

I compose with bells a lot. Bells and breath. Both things you react to without thinking about it. Bells traditionally give us orders: come to the desk, the truck is backing up, the ice cream is here, it's time to go to church. They're sounds our brains are already associated with.

Art is borne out of necessity. Music is a tool and men are doers. When a relationship is working, you don't need to write a song-you need to get toilet paper.

I'm the anti indie-rocker. My stuff isn't ironic.

The way I approach things is from an experimental folk music standpoint.

I was obsessed with the Beatles as a kid.