I compose with bells a lot. Bells and breath. Both things you react to without thinking about it. Bells traditionally give us orders: come to the desk, the truck is backing up, the ice cream is here, it's time to go to church. They're sounds our brains are already associated with.

- Sxip Shirey

I'm the anti indie-rocker. My stuff isn't ironic.

- Sxip Shirey

I live in a neighborhood that's really filled with sound - there's a lot of Jamaican auto body shops, and the guys next door play hip hop.

- Sxip Shirey

I was obsessed with the Beatles as a kid.

- Sxip Shirey

In many ways I'm an experimental and new music composer that comes from a rural tradition rather than an urban one.

- Sxip Shirey

The way I approach things is from an experimental folk music standpoint.

- Sxip Shirey