Art & Creativity Quote by Peter Garrett

There is a quiet provocation in Peter Garrett insisting, almost defensively, that “we take music very seriously.” It’s the kind of line that only lands because music so often gets treated as the opposite: entertainment, vibe, background noise, a commodity that can be streamed, skipped, and replaced in seconds. Garrett’s phrasing draws a boundary against that casualness. The point isn’t to demand reverence from the audience; it’s to signal that the band’s internal standard is closer to a civic duty than a weekend gig.

Coming from Garrett, it also reads as preemptive reputation management. Midnight Oil were frequently framed through their politics, their confrontational stagecraft, and Garrett’s own public trajectory. “We take music very seriously” pushes back on the idea that the songs are merely delivery systems for messages. The subtext: the music isn’t a pamphlet with a drumbeat; the craft is the argument. If you want people to listen when you’re angry, you have to be musically undeniable.

The line’s bluntness matters. No poetics, no self-mythologizing. Just “the fact is” - an appeal to credibility, like he’s correcting the record. That matter-of-fact tone is its own stance: seriousness as discipline, not drama. In a culture that rewards irony and disposable taste, Garrett’s insistence feels almost countercultural, a reminder that urgency without rigor is just noise.