Joanna Newsom Quotations

Around eighth grade I decided I wanted to be a composer and that's what I went to college for. Just a few years back, I switched out of composition and into creative writing so I could work with words.

I didn't sing for years and years, but I started playing harp when I was maybe 9 or 10. I had actually wanted to play for years leading up to that, but no teacher in our little town would take me on as a student, because I was too young.

I am producing sounds that people are not used to hearing from the harp.

I can understand someone not liking the voice or the songs.

I can't play my songs on the smaller harp. I have a Celtic harp. I can't do the key changes.

I have a deep rooted folk sensibility that I can't get away from completely.

I have writing songs on my own for about six years.

I started playing harp about fourteen years ago.

I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music.

I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.