Devendra Banhart

I can't tell you how many times I've had a friend tell me, in this tender and discreet voice, 'It's just you and me bro, and I want to tell you the truth: make a record of you and an acoustic guitar. Please. That's what everybody actually likes.' That's so funny to me.

As an adolescent I saw the Specials at the Glass House in Pomona, and that was life changing. I dressed the part - except not well, because it was a thrift suit. I looked more like David Byrne than a rudeboy; I still have a hard time finding suits that fit me. But I had my braces and I had my Docs. It was unbelievable.

I grew up around so much new agey stuff. Part of me takes it lightly because I'm so used to it. It was my parents. It wasn't some path I discovered and want to share with people. It's just been a very natural part of my life. There's humor to it and there's seriousness to it, too.

I sometimes think a movement as rich and wild and incredible as Tropicalismo wouldn't have survived without incredibly catchy music.

I'm interested in Qawwali and the blues.

Good art doesn't really have an expiration date on it.

I've got a long list of things I consider to be selling out. But amongst that list, one of them is when you make art without putting your guard down.

I meditate.' That's like saying 'I eat.' Think of all the food there is! And there are almost as many varieties of mediation.

I like California a lot. There's a lot of space, but it's actually the most populated place in the nation.

Generally, I can't really do much without music playing - even writing or thinking. Peace and quiet means putting on a song.

In the past, I had this open-door policy where everyone was invited. And that was awesome, but you end up releasing songs that you don't really like and justifying it in your head.

When the Internet came along, the first thing I did was look up Wu-Tang so I could print out their symbol and glue it onto my skateboard.

As anthropomorphic and surreal people have said my early writing was, to me it was really stock and almost banal in the sense that it was just description, the poetry of comparing: 'Your feet are like A, and your eyes like B.'

I know that there are energies that vibrate frequencies that are so subtle you could say that they exist in a different territory or realm or sphere, and people mistake these frequencies for ghosts.

I try to listen to as much as possible. I know some people really try to avoid music when they're writing and recording, but I am very inspired by so many different musicians, and I need to learn.

I sit around and try to play along to certain songs that I really love. It helps you explore new territory.

I want to do a record with Adam Green of all German schlager songs.

Grizzly Bear's 'Knife' is one of the best videos of all time - everything Encyclopedia Pictura has done is really incredible.

This is my definition of selling out: When you change what you do or do what you do as a reaction to someone else's expectations or lack of expectations.

My gadabout days are over.

Well I am a Gemini.

I do have very small handwriting.

I might have some delusions of grandeur.

It's all about sensitivity. If you have sensitivity then mysticism will be part of your life.

Leigh Bowery is a legend. Everybody loves Leigh Bowery. Everybody should love Leigh Bowery.

I love Oasis.

I live in a total bubble where I assume everyone is super-liberal and democratic.

I support things that are very close to my heart: mostly LGBTQ rights.

Whether I'm on a major or an indie, I don't think this is important, but at the same time I do.

I can see my songs in a movie as long as it's a movie no one will watch.

I don't think I'm getting better, quote unquote, as a singer or guitar player. But I'm more comfortable in this particular space. I get better at being a bad singer, so to speak.

We all have our vices, you know. One of my vices is ice cream.

I don't even know what a hippy is. I mean, hippy is an evolution of the Sixties movement. A time when people were trying to make a difference, trying to write songs that were political. People grow old. The hippy camp kind of breaks off into different sects.

Real hippies don't like me at all. They can smell a real hippy.

Am I a pro-cult person? In no way!

It's very powerful to shut down your computer and escape into the real world.

The only real moment is now.

Pay attention to your breathing.

My number-one hero in terms of interdisciplinary art is Laurie Anderson, but I've always admired anyone who can think way beyond any one medium.

Anne Imhof is a powerful artist from Germany making work that is totally interdisciplinary.

Basho is the great poet of Japan, writing in the second half of the 17th century, but his work is still incredibly fresh.

I'm just trying to make rent and do my work.

When anyone dies, it's sad.

I love almost every Britpop band.

I collect head shots from bands.

I'm deeply conservative and I'm profoundly boring.

I'm getting older and I'm just coming to terms that I'm stuck with me so I better try to like myself.

As I get older, there's this new realisation and it's almost like a relief, and that is that I can never be who I once was, but only who I want to become.

I aspire to feel like a child, how about that!

At some point in your life, if you live in Venezuela, you come across or own a cuatro. Either at school, either at camp, either at a friend's house, at a birthday or Christmas or bar mitzvah, you end up with a cuatro. It's like a must.