"But really important, perhaps most important is the craft; how you make your record, the creation of these sonic worlds you want your listener to hear"
About this Quote
Craft is the quiet flex in a music culture that loves to mythologize “the song” as a bolt of inspiration and “the artist” as a personality. Duncan Sheik, a musician who’s moved between radio-friendly pop, theater, and long-form composition, is pushing back on the idea that records are just vessels for feelings or hooks. He’s arguing that the real power lies in construction: the microphone choice, the room tone, the arrangement decisions that make a chorus feel like it lifts or a verse feel like it closes in.
The phrasing matters. “Really important, perhaps most important” reads like a self-correction mid-thought, as if he’s demoting the usual talking points (authenticity, lyrics, brand) in real time. “How you make your record” is almost stubbornly practical, a reminder that recorded music isn’t a diary entry; it’s an engineered object. Then he escalates into the immersive language of “sonic worlds,” which frames production not as polish but as storytelling. The listener isn’t just hearing a performance; they’re entering a designed space.
There’s also an implicit critique of the streaming-era flattening of sound, where loudness normalization and playlist context can make everything feel interchangeable. Sheik’s subtext: if you want a listener to stay, you can’t rely on vibes alone. You have to build an environment worth living in for three minutes (or thirty).
The phrasing matters. “Really important, perhaps most important” reads like a self-correction mid-thought, as if he’s demoting the usual talking points (authenticity, lyrics, brand) in real time. “How you make your record” is almost stubbornly practical, a reminder that recorded music isn’t a diary entry; it’s an engineered object. Then he escalates into the immersive language of “sonic worlds,” which frames production not as polish but as storytelling. The listener isn’t just hearing a performance; they’re entering a designed space.
There’s also an implicit critique of the streaming-era flattening of sound, where loudness normalization and playlist context can make everything feel interchangeable. Sheik’s subtext: if you want a listener to stay, you can’t rely on vibes alone. You have to build an environment worth living in for three minutes (or thirty).
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|
More Quotes by Duncan
Add to List
