Top 40 Aldous Harding Quotes

I’m not much of a fan-girl.

We all want the same thing, love and acceptance. That’s pretty much it. And what I’ve learned is that unless I’m happy with my side of the nickel, it can change violently – quickly.

If you want to do this, you’ve got to last. You’ve got to be well enough to carry your ideas. I’m not saying I’ve got great ideas, but if I do I need to be able to deliver them.

My music’s doing things, out there in the world, and that’s a very positive feeling, you know? I haven’t had a job I’ve been this good at or this excited about since I was a dog groomer!

I think there’s strength in seeing somebody who’s not necessarily winning at life… to make something that makes people feel like they’ve won when they hear it.

I’m just focused on getting to the end of each show and feeling like we’ve done a good job when we walk off stage. And a perfect show isn’t necessarily about making the audience feel good. I know I’ve done my job well if I’ve made people feel… interesting. I like to leave them a little stunned.

I don’t know a lot about art and music culture.

Probably when I was about 16 or 17 I started writing. I wouldn’t call it poetry, even though I’ve referred to it as poetry a couple times. But I don’t think that’s right. It was more scribblings and stream of consciousness.

I really do feel like an unremarkable person trying really hard, openly, to do something interesting and to make something of value and pleasure.

You know, we’ve had some pretty rough festival stages.

My family used to put on a small folk festival.

I enjoy doing the thing that I find interesting really well.

It’s funny. I change depending on what I’m around, and who I’m around. I’ve always been like that.

I’m optimistic but I’m also not stupid.

As a kid I remember being frightened all of the time, and kind of sad. I was certainly troubled. But a lot of people were, y’know? I don’t really know how to measure my trouble against somebody else’s.

I’m focused on my future. I’m ignoring my past, apart from the bits that I draw from to help me focus on my future.

I don’t think about why I do what I do, or why I started doing what I do, because I’m so obsessed with doing it right now, and what it means to me right now.

That was the biggest compliment that I can receive – making somebody wonder whether they have the problem, rather than what my problem is.

There are very few things in the world that make me feel a feeling, really.

I don’t really like to talk about what my songs are about.

Designer’ is meant to mean whatever it means.

When I was making my first record, I think I felt slightly trapped by my mind and my genre. I think in one way, that archaic language I was using came from a kind of mild obsession with the devil.

In my mind, I was never going to have the things I wanted if I played music for a living, unless I became a rock star.

I believe in myself enough to not get hung up on what other people are doing, or what I should be writing, or the nature of how I’m writing. I’m just able.

I like reading things where someone’s looked at what I do with some honesty, and maybe been challenged by it, and they have something to say that shows they’ve thought about it, even if they don’t necessarily like it.

You should see my stepdad’s face when he’s lifting something. It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen! So you can’t expect, just because I’m a potentially pretty person, that I won’t allow myself to try out emotional states that might make me look ugly to some people.

I’m definitely not above wanting to be liked. Because, I mean, that feels less… lonely? But to be honest, because it was never my dream, I live quite a pressure-less existence, y’know. And of course, that’s not true, but it’s partly true.

When you’re young and starting out, a lot of artists think they know exactly who they are. There are others who come out in someone else’s skin. They learn to take it off bit-by-bit and work out the core of what they’re trying to say.

I think about it as not so much ‘I need to get it out of me,’ it’s not that my thoughts are poison, I just want to write good music.

I find that comforting and an equally purposeful way to think, that there’s lots of ways to flex both your strengths and your weaknesses.

I think a bit of mystery is good, and I used to feel like an eccentric person pretending to be normal. But I am actually just a normal person seeming eccentric, by what I’m putting myself through.

With some things, it’s not that I like doing them; it’s more that I like having done them. I like to look back and see that I’ve made a nice thing.

That’s what I look for in music anyway: I want someone to confuse me to the point where I look inwards rather than at what they’re doing.

When it comes to a specific sound, I don’t feel like there’s something I need to worry about. I’d much rather do something creative and credible. Like, ‘Who am I? What am I trying to say? What do I stand for?’ I stand for all of it, because I feel all of it, like everybody.

All I ever wanted to do was to do something interesting.

I don’t have necessarily good taste. I have some really good taste and I have some really awful taste. I don’t see the difference, because when you use them together they can work.

We’ve played quite a few festivals now. We can take care of it, no matter where we are.

Wales is a lot like New Zealand.

I’m one of those people who’s always changing. There’s nothing wrong with it but it means I am a hard person to hold onto, I guess.

I’m not afraid to look stupid and I’m not afraid to look like I’m trying too hard.