"I'm just trying to do things that are interesting for me"
About this Quote
Phil Collins’ line lands like a shrug, but it’s a carefully calibrated one. “I’m just trying” lowers the temperature: no grand mission statement, no tortured-artiste mythology, no demand that the audience treat his choices as prophecy. It’s the language of a working musician defending curiosity in a culture that constantly tries to turn artists into brands with fixed lanes.
The subtext is boundary-setting. Collins spent decades in the public eye as both a prog-rock craftsman with Genesis and a solo hit factory whose slick drums and radio-friendly hooks became shorthand for a certain ’80s sheen. When you’re that commercially legible, every pivot gets treated as a referendum: Are you selling out? Are you chasing trends? Are you past your prime? “Interesting for me” reframes the conversation away from validation and toward process. It’s not anti-audience; it’s anti-committee.
There’s also a quiet rebuke to the idea that seriousness equals depth. Collins has often been underestimated because his songs are immediate, his voice approachable, his hooks engineered to stick. Saying he follows what interests him implies that craft, groove, and pop pleasure are legitimate artistic pursuits, not guilty pleasures requiring apology.
Contextually, it reads like survival advice from someone who’s seen hype cycles chew through peers: if you chase relevance, you become a parody; if you chase curiosity, you at least remain a person. The line’s power is its modesty: a superstar insisting, almost stubbornly, on the right to be privately motivated in a very public career.
The subtext is boundary-setting. Collins spent decades in the public eye as both a prog-rock craftsman with Genesis and a solo hit factory whose slick drums and radio-friendly hooks became shorthand for a certain ’80s sheen. When you’re that commercially legible, every pivot gets treated as a referendum: Are you selling out? Are you chasing trends? Are you past your prime? “Interesting for me” reframes the conversation away from validation and toward process. It’s not anti-audience; it’s anti-committee.
There’s also a quiet rebuke to the idea that seriousness equals depth. Collins has often been underestimated because his songs are immediate, his voice approachable, his hooks engineered to stick. Saying he follows what interests him implies that craft, groove, and pop pleasure are legitimate artistic pursuits, not guilty pleasures requiring apology.
Contextually, it reads like survival advice from someone who’s seen hype cycles chew through peers: if you chase relevance, you become a parody; if you chase curiosity, you at least remain a person. The line’s power is its modesty: a superstar insisting, almost stubbornly, on the right to be privately motivated in a very public career.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
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