Elvis Costello

My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant.

But there are things in Il Sogno that the methods of The Delivery Man could never achieve.

And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.

I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.

You have to face the fact that I have no reputation as a composer; I have my reputation as a songwriter and a performer-and that opportunity came this summer, when I was invited to perform at the Lincoln Centre festival in New York… three nights.

I find humming is very useful.

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.

You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it’s just going to be an obscurity.

I’ve been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music.

Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things.

Well, I’ve had a lot of different experiences in music over the years. And not everything you do can satisfy everybody’s idealised version of you.

There’s no such thing as an original sin.

Mention Hubert Sumlin, as well, because Hubert’s a great man, and again, you know, I don’t play the guitar very good, but when I’m playing this kind of music, I always have him in my mind. I wish I could play like Hubert.

There are many critics who have an idealised version of where my strengths lie.

These are the sort of things that push you on in music – the curiosity, a passion for new ideas.

Women hear rhythm differently than men.

And I don’t feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don’t understand it or I don’t have some love for some part of it.

Well, T Bone’s had a remarkable career as a producer since the time that we first worked together. He was dividing his time between recording and producing when we first met, and touring. We toured together and we were great friends.

And over the last ten years, after my work with the Brodsky Quartet, I had the opportunity to write arrangements for chamber group, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra, symphony orchestra even.

I found with this record I had to really be strong-willed, because in the past I’ve tended to tinker and add a thing or take a thing away, and nearly always been wrong.

Maybe I just never learned my harmony part, because what everybody says sounds odd to them sounds perfectly natural to me.

I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way.

Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock’n’roll, but it was already a little past rock’n’roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music.

I believe that music is connected by human passions and curiosities rather than by marketing strategies.

I’d been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time.

Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock’n’roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I’ve done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.

Very similar experience happened last year when we released this album, North. It was on Deutsche Grammophon, it was very, very honest. It was the most honest record I’ve ever written.