Quotes from Jim James

After I wake up, I always meditate.

Pilates is amazing. It makes you conscious of how you have been doing something incorrectly for so long, even something as simple as just standing there.

I really believe in not compromising your art. I feel like I've never compromised my art.

The band can't exist without the crowd, and the crowd wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the band, and it really is something magical that people need.

When I was maybe three years old, I was obsessed with this song 'Leader of the Band' by Dan Fogelberg. My mom took me to the mall and bought me a 45 of it. We would listen to that song all the time.

Fleet Foxes are a really talented band. They make beautiful music.

I tried to score a few films with this composer Brian Reitzell here in L.A. We made a bunch of music we really loved, but we got fired from the film for being too weird.

'It Still Moves' is really the only record in our catalog that I've always felt I wanted to remix. Part of the fun of that record was that we recorded it all to tape, and it was all super-duper organic.

Some things cannot be explained. This is part of the magic of life. There cannot be a word or an idea or a definition attached to everything.

One thing I've learned is that the best thing a producer can do is help you be you.

Moving and motion tends to make things pop up. But things pop up for me, really, at just odd intervals or at random times that aren't really convenient, so I'm a big fan of the voice memo recorder on my phone. That's the only way I can remember things.

I was talking to my publisher, Jamie Ceretta, who's one of my closest confidants and allies when I'm working on new music. I feel like I can always count on his judgement because he'll tell me if he doesn't like something. It's sometimes hard to get people to tell you if they don't like something.