Trey Anastasio Quotations

The folk music definition has changed in this fast music world and musical styles are blending really quickly.

Musicians from the beginning of time have been there to express the mood and the musical feelings in the air for whatever's going on in that particular culture. It's the greatest joy as a musician to be able to translate that, be part of something and watch the scenery around you.

I’ve always loved the experience of working together with other people toward an artistic goal.

As long as your intention is pure, and you know what you're in it for, then you're alright. And I'm in it because I enjoy it. I take it seriously... real seriously. I mean I could sit and talk all day about the music.

What I thought at the moment was the worst thing that could happen was absolutely the biggest gift I've received.

When I was growing up in New Jersey, my mom would regularly take my sister and I into the city to see shows. I have many fond memories of standing in the half-price ticket line in Times Square and going to matinees.

Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note.

I've been sober for two-and-a-half years, My children are happy. In August, my wife and I will celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary. My band is back together with a sold-out tour.

My life had become a catastrophe. I had no idea how to turn it around. My band had broken up. I had almost lost my family. My whole life had devolved into a disaster. I believe that the police officer who stopped me at three a.m. that morning saved my life.

My life was a complete catatrophe. I was very, very sick from drugs and alcohol.

Set the gearshift for the high gear of your soul. You've got to run like an antelope, out of control.

Things have gone beyond my wildest expectations and dreams, and I feel like I've been given so many blessings in my life, between my friendship with the guys in the band, our wonderful audience, being able to play this music, and then my family.

Things don't go on forever, and the quicker you accept that change is inevitable, the happier you're gonna be.

I'm not trying to pull the rug out from under anybody, but the music really does tell you where to go.

I've always loved musical theater. It's a bit of a family tradition.

If there's one thing I discovered since I came back from hiatus, it's that you can't go backwards.

Music has always been my protection against the world, from a very young age. I feel safe inside of a jam.

We're never going to stop! Three hundred shows a year forever!

There's so much excitement around the Phish tours, and if it stopped feeling that way, it would ruin everything we've done for seventeen years.

I can't wait to play the Hammerstein shows. Things have been exploding in the last week, and that's going to be the exclamation point.

I am a prince I have it all, and I hear your foot steps on the wall, I wait in silence for your call, and take a shot and watch you fall.

The biggest sacrifice to me is to not be in an atmosphere where I can keep writing and moving forward.

When Phish broke up, I made some comment about how I'm not gonna go around playing 'You Enjoy Myself' for the rest of my life.

I think the Internet is going to open up a lot of possibilities with music, and the shake-up of power is exciting to me.

Anyone who writes knows that ultimately the majority of your time is spent alone in a room with a piano or a guitar, no matter what the project is.

I cannot spend my entire life going around the country playing 'You Enjoy Myself '.

It was amazing and inspiring to see so many people come together through music to aid the great state of Vermont.

Swing will never sound as good as it did in the '40s.

We were always a party band and we used to play outside a lot.

When you're a musician and you break new ground it resonates into the common consciousness.

Working on a play is a vibrant and collaborative business. Everyone from the choreographer to the music director to the director to the writers work together toward the same goal, and everyone chimes in on everything.

I've learned that in the theater the story is everything. Every lyric, every line and every musical gesture has to propel the journey of a given character or the overall plot.

We always felt like we were throwing a party for our friends, regardless of the size or the place, because we actually were throwing a party for our friends. We've always had a very tight knit community.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have worked with so many great collaborators in my lifetime.

I absolutely love the Philharmonic. I also love rock guitar.

I always dreamed of writing in an orchestral context. But when you finish a piece, you want to hear it. So we played everything with Phish.

I understand that transposing a song a half step can effect the believability of a lyric.

The band feels loose in all the right ways, and it's just so cool looking out and seeing all of these people that I haven't seen in a while.

John Lennon is the model for what I'm trying to do; that he grew and changed, ... It's been hard because you left your friends and I don't see them very much anymore, but look what happened with 1/8 Lennon) and those albums. They were struggling to progress beyond the greatest band that ever existed.

Ficus dream's are the dream's for me, it cost me nothing it was free.

It's a thrill to be on Columbia Records. Columbia has been home to a lot of my favorite artists -- like Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and Bruce Springsteen -- and it feels great to be working with people who really understand what I'm trying to do and allow me the freedom to go in new musical directions. I'm very proud of the way Shine has turned out and I hope everyone enjoys listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it.

It was just such a sense of discovery happening that night, ... We did a tour in the spring -- this is God's honest truth -- and it wasn't really together yet. At 10,000 Lakes Festival, every time we played a song, the chemistry was there. I knew the next phase had begun. Since then, it has gotten better and better.

I'm really excited to get back on the road and start playing the new songs live, ... The road is where the songs grow legs and begin evolving on their own in new and interesting ways. Shine is opening a new door for my music and I can't wait to find out what's on the other side.

I love the way this album came out, ... It was great to (work) with Brendan, who, nine songs into the record, looked at me and said, 'We're not putting this out until all 12 songs are great. You're not done.'

I love the way this album came out,

In your heart you feel like you're doing the right thing, because, ultimately, honesty is your gift to these people who are willing to listen to your music, ... Changing is part of that. You've got to change, and that's hard.

If I had a ghost living on my street. I would try try to stay alive, and offer him some meat!

The trick is to surrender to the Phlow!

I am excited to get on tour, if I'm speaking to the Phish fans. I can't wait.

I feel a great responsibility to deliver for our audience ... I am like their servant, but there's only one honest way to lift people up, which is to feel genuinely elevated yourself. And the way to do that is follow your heart. That's all we try to do.

Jerry Garcia was a great American master and the Grateful Dead are not just a genuine piece of musical history, but also an important part of American history,

There are no Jerry Garcias coming down the pike, anymore than there is a Jimi Hendrix or Bob Marley. They are all at the same level - the highest level that you strive to get to as a musician. Me and my friends - we'll all be long dead, people will still be trying to dig into what Jerry Garcia did.

If I had a ghost living on my street. I would try to stay alive, and offer him some meat!

Creativity is the antidote to destruction.

What happens if you start drawing squares? Well, I'd say the answer to that is, don't get famous for drawing circles.

It's like you're surfing... The same wave that can be a source of pain can be a beautiful flowing grace and source of power. It's all a matter of how you respond to it.

Music is a spiritual expression of what's in your heart. Music as a way of getting rich is a pretty new thing, and I often wonder if the mega-bucks glitzy atmosphere is making the quality of music suffer. You have to work really hard to get around that and remember why you're in it in the first place: because you have to be. It's like an addiction. You can't go a day without picking up your guitar. To me, the only commercial goals that are really valid are, 'Boy, I wish I didn't have to go to work. I wish I could do this all the time.'

We want to have a spontaneous adventure. You can't plan an adventure, or it ceases to be one.

Ideally the point of music is community, not the player. Musicians are simply channels to link the audience to the music and to each other.