Certain topics seemed to bubble to the surface in many of the on-the-record chats we recorded over the course of 2016, things that were floating around in everyone’s mind: the U.S. election, the death of icons like David Bowie and Prince, the way technology continues to warp our brains and change our lives, the legitimacy of political art, the potential paths forward for a rebuilding music industry, and the possible effects of this often-ominous year going into 2017.
Here are some words of wisdom that helped us navigate such big ideas courtesy of Danny Brown, David Lynch, M.I.A., RZA, Sonny Rollins, DeRay Mckesson, Dev Hynes, Lykke Li, and more.
“David Bowie’s music is a moving target. Just when you think you got the bullseye, it shifts. And to his credit, on to death, it’s still shifting—David Bowie is a moving target even after he’s gone.”
“David Bowie was a gateway drug for me, because once I realized that you could value androgyny and bisexuality and celebrate things that were unusual or extraordinary, it opened me up to a new way of loving myself. Once you learn to accept yourself, you find that you have a huge capacity for it.”Alice Bag
“I’ve always called him the Picasso of rock’n’roll, because I know that if I showed him anything—like a grapefruit—he would see the grapefruit that I see and then he’d see the grapefruit that he sees, and they would be two different things. He would have to explain to me his vision of the grapefruit.”Bowie producuer Nile Rodgers
“He just kicked it out of the park: This is my take on death—fucking have it. As soon as I put [Blackstar] on for the first time, the sky blackened and it rained in my face. I felt like he was whipping the wind, this elemental force of nature.”Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan
“We should hands-down know what the best album of this year is. Shouldn’t be talk of nothing else.”Danny Brown on Blackstar
“It takes time to get [music] back to a more political place. But with this election, it seems like people are honestly worked up about it—and not just worked up as a trending topic.”
“Trump married the seriousness of politics with social media and reality show bullshit. And people are OK with it, because that’s the culture now—until it gets really real when you’re fighting a war again. You would have thought we would have learned our lesson by now.”Maxwell
“When I think about how divided our country is right now, it can feel difficult to not want to demonize millions of people as selfish and unthinking. But most aren’t.”Local Natives’ Taylor Rice
“Voting in U.S. presidential elections, you go into it with this feeling of real optimism, like it’s finally gonna make a difference. And then slowly, every four years, that feeling of optimism is kind of beaten out of you.”Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace
“Everything I have learned in my life tells me that Trump will be a complete disaster—both to the economy and to democracy. The best people are the ones who can tell a great story. The worst are those who think they are the great story.”Mark Eitzel
“Being tolerant is the future. It’s not being segregated.”M.I.A.
“As a human being, I would probably be more intelligent, more fulfilled, and less anxious if I didn’t have constant access to social media and the internet.”
“If Michael Jackson did the moonwalk for the first time now, and it debuted on Twitter, the third comment would probably be: ‘He’s just walking backwards.’ That’s why there’s no real rock stars anymore. Everything’s immediately diminished.”The 1975’s Matt Healy
“I went with some elders who were hunting seal, and they were eating the raw seal meat and offered me some. I put it in my mouth and my whole spine, one by one, got taller. A gushing warmth came into my whole body. Something woke up in me that [reminded me] we are animals, and that hundreds of years ago, that’s what we did. Technology isn’t who we are.”Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq
“What pop culture could teach you, as a political activist, is how to be understood by people outside of your community. It’s about empathy.”Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokno
“A lot of ‘political pieces’ are, to put it kindly, a waste of time. If it’s a really good piece of music, then the political purpose to which it’s put is betrayed by the sense in which music will just vaporize, and the theme will vaporize along with it.”Steve Reich
“The kind of sanctions that we need to put on certain things so that the world doesn’t combust is a matter of saying no: to profit, to comforts, to killing innocent people. I know it’s very simple, but sometimes in the end you can see it on a very simple level. We know these things are bad and yet they keep on happening.”Nicolas Jaar
“It’s terrible now with all these [refugee] kids drowning, and all of this racism. Every time I walk in the street, I feel bad about all these things. Sometimes I don’t feel optimistic anymore. It seems like sometimes music can’t do anything. But I have to believe in something. It’s hard to be a musician, but at least I found a way to give a sense to my life. To remain sane.”Tunisian protest singer Emel Mathlouthi
“Music is a strange thing. It goes into us, and a whole bunch of things start happening. It’s like a gift.”
“The more that I write songs, the more I feel that telling a story is the most important thing—just being able to close your eyes when you hear some lyrics and go somewhere. It’s worth taking the time to do that, because people respond to it.”Rostam
“There’s always going to be a fight between mainstream and underground because the mainstream is a very small bubble, and the underground scene is a very small bubble, and they both see themselves as secret societies. When either side doesn’t know how to classify you, that’s when you start to have some fun.”Dawn Richard
“It’s important to treat everybody the same, even when you're having a bad time. Don’t talk to anyone like they’re lower than you, because you never know when you need help. You don't have to be an asshole.”Anderson .Paak
“When you’re hurting you don’t jump off a bridge—you read and you sing and you talk and you cry and you play with your pussy or whatever it is. You figure it out.”serpentwithfeet
“You don’t have to be fearless to do anything, you can be scared out of your mind. Anything you do, somebody is going to say something. Fuck that. You have to do it, because it’s who you fucking are.”Esperanza Spalding
“I don’t have the same respect for time as most people. I take that extra day to think about it. Even though you may need the answer today, I’d rather meditate and get the answer [tomorrow] because I know this much: The decision is permanent.”RZA
“What are we here for? Is it just about having fun? To me, that’s not enough. I’ve lived that life. I’m looking for the deeper things. The world is over in a minute and we’re here just for a second. We need to use this time to find out something.”Sonny Rollins
“I care a lot that people don’t hear me peeing or pooping in a public bathroom.”Mitski
“I’ve Googled Serena Williams’ booty.”A$AP Ferg
“Some sort of animal rug, roaring fire, a lot of eskimo and butterfly kisses, Klondike bars, Jodeci, edible undies, a French tickler, some of E-40’s Slurricane cocktail, and I like to wear the underwear that makes it look like a little elephant trunk.”The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer on his idea of a romantic evening
“Look, I’m the only guitarist you know who’s played for everyone from Sun Ra to Kathie Lee Gifford.”William “Spaceman” Patterson, who played on Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Endless
“Yes, I have had ghost dick dreams.”Kelsey Lu
“You can’t write music when you’re high. You can’t do much of anything productive.”
“I see what kids are watching nowadays, and it makes me sick. It’s always about learning and being happy, but life is not about that. Life is way harder.”M83’s Anthony Gonzalez
“Great music is not born out of a person who’s had a very nuclear family growing up. If your shit is crazy, everyone else gets to have a normal life. You get to bleed for them, and that blood is their wine. It’s unfortunate that that’s how it is.”Maxwell
“A perpetual free option doesn’t make for a viable music industry—what are you telling people about the value of music? You need to give them an alternative that’s attractive, reasonably priced, and fits the way they want to consume music. That is the holy grail.”
“We’re basically heading down a path where people are getting sued over imitating styles, or sensibilities. If we continue down this path, the music industry is going to litigate itself to death.”University of Iowa communications professor Kembrew McLeod
“Young people started reacting instinctively, realizing they liked the tactile experience of music—I don’t even think it was conscious. They enjoy face-to-face interactions, not downloads from some piece of machinery. It’s better socially, better for the community, and people can feel it.”Independent record store owner Greg Hall
“Vinyl has become a luxury product. It caters to a very specific niche audience of elite people. It’s a status object—a symbol of rebellion that has zero rebellion involved. It feels like rich guys who own Harleys.”Electronic artist and onetime vinyl-only label owner Kevin McHugh
“Prince was the main person who showed me to be myself at the fullest, and he still teaches me that to this day. I’m still learning things from Prince.”
“A lot of people don’t want to deal with the fact that they’re going to die some day, so they just put it off or don’t deal with it all.”Entertainment lawyer Monica McCabe, who previously represented Prince
“I’m terrified of dying because of everything being too unfinished. I would be happy being a ghost.”Christine and the Queens’ Héloïse Letissier
“I’m glad I’m 67 years old, because I see the next 20 years… and the personality of mankind, it’s getting very corrupted.”Charles Bradley
“Love is the only thing that will remain after we’re gone. Even when you die, the only thing you can ask yourself is, ‘Did I love enough?’”Lykke Li
“I believe we’re gonna [destroy] ourselves very soon. We’ll all have the same fate.”M83’s Anthony Gonzalez
“‘HE DID THAT SHIT.’”Mac Miller on what he wants engraved into his tombstone