Quotes About Expression

I'm probably going to be more of a vocal leader, which is a challenge for me with English not being my natural language.

The music I want to hear in my head sounds somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and Massive Attack. It's not really like my dad, but there will always be similarities because we have the same vocal cords, and I learnt the guitar the way he taught me.

Crying is really bad for your vocal cords.

If you listen to 'Paris,' when I'm up on the bridge part, it literally sounds like my vocal cords are being ripped apart.

When we're upset, our vocal cords tighten and we can't speak. And when I lie - well, I can't lie, because the same thing happens - everyone who knows me knows that when I start squeaking, I've started lying.

You can't imitate; all our faces are constructed differently... and the vocal cords; otherwise, we'd all sound alike. I don't think anybody should ever teach by imitating.

A banal poem is never more than a banal poem. A banal or trite lyric, however, can be - with the right vocal cords - brilliantly and shatteringly conveyed.

When I use my vocal cords, it kind of feels like what it feels like when you put your shoes on the wrong foot.

When it's open and honest, that's when the real nature of who you are as a vocalist or as a performer, all of that stuff can finally start to become what it's supposed to be. Like a settling into yourself. It's not even a musical thing, it's a whole mindset, a whole acceptance of who you were supposed to be. Life sounds good.

I'm not the type of woman who shows off my body; I'm a vocalist and I'm a writer and I think people see that more so than they see anything else. That's just who I am.

Van Morrison is probably, at this point in time, my biggest influence as a vocalist. When we were making our last album I had a vinyl copy of 'Veedon Fleece' in the vocal booth in front of me, in the dorky sense. I think there were candles around, which is really tacky, but hey, I needed to channel Van the Man!

In any event, I'm proud to wear the badge of jazz vocalist if that's what people want to call me; but at the same time, there are many other things I like to do.

I used to sing at funeral homes for families that didn't have a vocalist. I didn't get paid. I needed to sing.

Often, when I work with a vocalist, I like to focus on the melodies first.

I hate that when you introduce yourself, and you're a rapper, sometimes you gotta say, 'I'm a musician.' Or, 'I'm an artist.' 'I'm a recording artist.' 'I'm a vocalist.'

I get to focus on being a musician sometimes, and I get to focus on being a vocalist sometimes.

I never called myself a jazz singer. I just call myself a vocalist because I love to sing all kinds of things.

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

Elvis inspired my sideburns, but Little Richard inspired me for vocals.

My whole goal in this industry nowadays is to keep doing the underground stuff, but to be able to add vocals that are sexy and underground.

I feel that in the underground world, there's not enough vocals out there.

Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time' was a perfect song. It was so beautiful and so heartfelt. Her vocals were so amazing. And, for me, that was a song I went to when I was feeling sad and wanted to feel even sadder.

I got into punk at 17 after discovering an all-girl band from Long Island on the Internet called The Devotchkas - four crazy-looking girls with fast, driving basslines and high-pitched gang vocals who shared the same dress sense as the punks I used to eye up curiously in Camden.

I want to make an album with just great beats and big vocals and just amazing lyrics.