Art & Creativity Quote by Brian Setzer

Permission is the hidden gift in Brian Setzer's advice: stop treating the song like a museum piece and start treating it like a vehicle. Coming from a musician who built a career reviving and rewiring rockabilly for new decades, "take liberties" isn't code for sloppiness; it's a dare to stop hiding behind correctness. Setzer's world is full of players who can replicate a lick perfectly and still sound like they're doing homework. His line draws a bright boundary between imitation and interpretation.

The intent is practical. He's talking to performers who have the notes but not the nerve. "This music" implies a tradition with rules, gatekeepers, and a canon - the kind of scene where authenticity gets policed and deviations get side-eyed. Setzer flips that pressure. The real test isn't whether you can play it "right", but whether you can make it speak in your accent: your timing, your attack, your swagger, your restraint. The phrase "put some of yourself into it" is almost parental, but it's also a little combative: if you don't, you're replaceable.

Subtextually, it's a defense of continuity through change. Genres survive when people smuggle their own lives into the form, not when they freeze it into reenactment. Setzer's own success - from the Stray Cats to his big band era - models the argument: reverence is fine, but only if it turns into risk. The liberty isn't betrayal. It's how the music stays alive.