Bernard Sumner Quotes

Powerful Bernard Sumner for Daily Growth

About Bernard Sumner

Bernard Edward Sumner, born on February 4, 1956, in Salford, Lancashire, England, is a renowned musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work as the bass guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and principal songwriter of the influential British rock bands Joy Division and New Order. Sumner's musical journey began in the late 1970s when he formed Joy Division with drummer Stephen Morris, guitarist Bernard Albrecht (later replaced by Craig Gill), and lead singer Ian Curtis. The band gained critical acclaim for their post-punk sound and introspective lyrics, with Sumner contributing to both the music and lyrics, particularly after Curtis' tragic suicide in 1980. Following Joy Division's dissolution, Sumner, Morris, and Gill formed New Order in 1980, with guitarist Gill being replaced by Johnny Marr from The Smiths. With Sumner as the primary songwriter, New Order found success with albums like "Movement," "Power, Corruption & Lies," and "Technique." They continued to innovate, blending elements of electronica, dance music, and rock, and were influential in the development of the British independent scene. Sumner's music has been shaped by his experiences, including the industrial landscapes of his hometown Salford, the political climate of post-punk England, and personal loss. His lyrics often reflect a sense of alienation, longing, and resilience. Sumner's enduring influence on contemporary music, particularly in the post-punk and indie rock genres, has solidified his place as a significant figure in British music history.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Music is a way for me to express myself and I've always found that very liberating."

This quote by Bernard Sumner highlights the profound personal freedom and self-expression that music provides for artists like him. Music serves as an outlet, allowing individuals to communicate their thoughts, emotions, and creativity in a unique and impactful way. It's liberating because it transcends conventional means of expression, offering an uninhibited avenue for personal growth and self-discovery.

"I think it's important to evolve and do new things."

This quote emphasizes the significance of change, growth, and adaptation in life. Bernard Sumner suggests that continuous evolution and embracing novel experiences are essential for personal development and fulfillment. By doing new things, we broaden our horizons, challenge ourselves, and foster creativity and resilience.

"Success isn't something you achieve once and then you have it forever. You have to keep working at it every day."

This quote by Bernard Sumner emphasizes that success is an ongoing process, not a one-time achievement. It implies that to maintain success, effort must be consistently applied every day. Success requires constant vigilance, hard work, and adaptability to change, as it is never truly "achieved forever." Instead, success is a daily pursuit and a continuous journey.

"The best thing about music is that there are no rules."

Bernard Sumner's quote emphasizes the creative freedom inherent in music, suggesting that there are no strict boundaries or limitations to its expression. This means that artists can experiment with various styles, genres, and techniques without worrying about conforming to established norms or traditional definitions of what constitutes "good" music. Essentially, it encourages exploration, innovation, and the breaking of barriers in the realm of musical creation.

"I think one of the most important qualities in a musician is not giving up, even when things get tough."

This quote by Bernard Sumner emphasizes resilience and determination as key attributes for musicians. It suggests that success in music requires persistence, especially during challenging times. This message can be extended to any endeavor; the idea is that one should never give up on their dreams or ambitions, even when faced with obstacles or setbacks. The quote encourages individuals to persevere through adversity, as it often leads to greater success and personal growth.

If you're driving around or at home with the stereo blasting pure dance track, it gets boring within about 15 minutes. It doesn't work at home like it does in a nightclub. You've got no atmosphere.

- Bernard Sumner

Like, Nightclub, Atmosphere, Blasting

I first read about hypnotism at school, and I used to do tricks like getting a really skinny guy to arm wrestle the local bully.

- Bernard Sumner

Like, About, Read, Bully

It's weird: people used to want your autograph; now what they want to do is to take your photograph with an iPhone. And sometimes they'll pop their arm around you to hold their iPhone; they're shaking when they take it.

- Bernard Sumner

Want, Sometimes, Used, Autograph

I'm terrible with decisions. And I can't make myself do something I don't like. I can't knuckle under.

- Bernard Sumner

Myself, Like, Knuckle, Decisions

When you grow up without a brother or sister, you tend to see things just through your own eyes. You have friends and everything, but you spend most of your time watching TV or sat in a room making decisions about your life on your own.

- Bernard Sumner

Own, Through, TV, Decisions

If you have a bereavement in your family, it's a terrible, terrible thing. But, you know, time passes. It's part of the cycle. It doesn't hurt so much.

- Bernard Sumner

Time Passes, Part, Terrible Thing

I'd had to cope with a lot of death and illness in my family from a young age, and that maybe gave me a bleak outlook on the world.

- Bernard Sumner

Death, Young, Maybe, Bleak

Joy Division sounded like Manchester: cold, sparse and, at times, bleak.

- Bernard Sumner

Joy, Division, Times, Bleak

One of the things I like about music is it's an abstract art, totally abstract, where you can convey an emotion, which I find amazing.

- Bernard Sumner

Art, Like, Which, Convey

Los Angeles produced the Beach Boys. Dusseldorf produced Kraftwerk. New York produced Chic. Manchester produced Joy Division.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Angeles, Joy Division, Manchester

Where I grew up was a place called Salford, which was the industrial heartland of Manchester. And where I lived in Salford, I could walk to the center of Manchester within about 20 minutes. So I lived really close to the center.

- Bernard Sumner

Within, Could, Which, Manchester

If it wasn't for John Peel, there would be no Joy Division and no New Order. He was one of the few people to give bands that played alternative music a chance to get heard, and he continued to be a champion of cutting-edge music throughout his life.

- Bernard Sumner

Life, Bands, Cutting-Edge, Joy Division

Part of the reason I joined Joy Division was so that I really wouldn't have to grow up.

- Bernard Sumner

Grow, Reason, Division, Joy Division

We didn't play any Joy Division songs for 10 years after the start of New Order, which was a very honourable thing to do even if it meant shooting ourselves in the foot.

- Bernard Sumner

Play, Meant, Which, Joy Division

If something I do now sounds like something I did in the past, it's because I played it. I can't help sounding like myself. That's going to happen. The things that I play on guitar that resonate with me are probably the same things that resonated with me when I started playing in Joy Division.

- Bernard Sumner

Play, Division, Same, Joy Division

I'm very proud of New Order and Joy Division, that heritage of songs.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Division, Very, Joy Division

When Joy Division started, I was scared to death of having to get a normal day job.

- Bernard Sumner

Death, Normal, Having, Joy Division

Joy Division finished the 1970s on a high. Our debut album, 'Unknown Pleasures,' was doing well; we'd just finished a hugely enjoyable and successful tour. The band's profile was higher than it had ever been, and it seemed to be growing by the day.

- Bernard Sumner

Doing, Been, Had, Joy Division

I get writer's block all the time. The only way I can write what I consider to be good lyrics is to put myself through the mill.

- Bernard Sumner

Good, Myself, Through, Block

My mother, Laura Sumner, had cerebral palsy. She was born absolutely fine, but after about three days, she started having convulsions that left her with a condition that would confine her to a wheelchair her entire life.

- Bernard Sumner

Wheelchair, About, Had, Laura

The drummer is the backbone of the band and is the real underrated one.

- Bernard Sumner

Real, Band, Backbone, Underrated

If you hear a New Order track that's mostly electronic, it's generally come about through one person sitting at a computer and programming it.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Through, Mostly, Programming

As you get older, you kind of take a more sober view of life.

- Bernard Sumner

View, Kind, Take, Sober

It's not in my nature to be too literal.

- Bernard Sumner

Nature, Too, Literal

If someone throws you in a pool and you can't swim, you're going to struggle.

- Bernard Sumner

Pool, Someone, Going, Struggle

I'm sure every time I bring something out that isn't New Order, people say it sounds like New Order.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Like, Sure, Every Time

I think when you're in your 20s, going from adolescence to about 24, I think your life is a series of emotional storms that you have to weather. Life is more emotional at that time, and you're less equipped to deal with what life throws at you. I always think that if you can get past 24, than life really starts at that point.

- Bernard Sumner

Deal, I Think, Equipped, Storms

Being a single mother in the late 1950s was a very shocking thing - and dreadful thing - for people.

- Bernard Sumner

Mother, Single, Very, Shocking

I believe that every business and company takes two years to establish.

- Bernard Sumner

Business, I Believe That, Establish

As human beings, we all mature physically from childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood, but our emotions lag behind.

- Bernard Sumner

Childhood, Emotions, Behind, Lag

I think New Order have got their own sound. But what we like to do is experiment, using dance music and other things.

- Bernard Sumner

Think, New, Using, Dance Music

New Order has always been a hybrid band. We always mixed guitar, bass, drums with electronic.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Always, Bass, Electronic

The words that I'm most happy with are the ones that come from my subconscious rather than my conscious. They just feel right. I think that's the same with music, really. If you're doing an album, there's ten or eleven sets of lyrics, so you get to the point of inspiration ten or eleven times - it's difficult.

- Bernard Sumner

Doing, I Think, Rather, Lyrics

I never knew my father. He'd disappeared from the scene before I was born, and I still have no idea who he is. Perhaps strangely, it's never bothered me; I certainly don't believe it's really affected me.

- Bernard Sumner

Father, Idea, Before, Disappeared

I tend to think in images and feelings rather than non-abstract concepts.

- Bernard Sumner

Think, Tend, Images, Feelings

I saw the Sex Pistols, and they were terrible.

- Bernard Sumner

Sex, Were, Saw, Sex Pistols

If you're a lead singer, then you can't afford to be sensitive. On stage, everyone looks at the lead singer, even if you don't want them to - in America, they have those massive follow spots on you all the time; it does your head in. So, if you are a lead singer and you don't toughen up, you're in the wrong job, and you have to get out.

- Bernard Sumner

America, Singer, Your, Spots

I entered music at a poppy level.

- Bernard Sumner

Music, Level, Entered, Poppy

I used to be a party monster, very into Acid House, which I saw as my weekend reward for working hard all week.

- Bernard Sumner

Reward, Very, Which, Working Hard

Thatcher was wrong. People don't exist - well, they don't flourish - as individuals. Life's about swapping ideas and communicating with other people.

- Bernard Sumner

Ideas, Other, About, Communicating

It's disrespectful to the older generation to have long hair. They fought in two world wars; they didn't fight for us to grow our hair and look like girls.

- Bernard Sumner

Generation, Grow, Like, Disrespectful

You can't put rubbish into a computer and get something good out.

- Bernard Sumner

Computer, Get, Rubbish, Something Good

I think in South America people are very, uh, they have no inhibitions and wear their hearts on their sleeves - what's the word? They're very expressive, demonstrative.

- Bernard Sumner

Think, I Think, Very, South America

You can't escape from yourself, can you?

- Bernard Sumner

Yourself, You, Escape

I felt that by the late '90s, I'd gone as far as I could with the keyboard.

- Bernard Sumner

Late, Keyboard, Far, As Far As

There's challenges in life that present themselves unexpectedly, and if you rise to them, then those challenges will toughen you up.

- Bernard Sumner

Challenges, Unexpectedly, Rise

You spend more time with your fellow band members than your girlfriend or wife, and you end up at each other's throats. It happens to all bands.

- Bernard Sumner

Wife, More, Other, Members

There were certain things I couldn't do with New Order without upsetting the rest of the band, so I started to write some solo stuff.

- Bernard Sumner

Rest, New, Some, Solo

The guitarist always looks a bit clever because he's got so many strings and apparently knows what to do with them.

- Bernard Sumner

Always, Them, Bit, Guitarist

I'm not interested in the past or in talking about myself.

- Bernard Sumner

Myself, Past, In The Past, Not Interested

I'm not interested in how well someone can sing. It's what you're singing that interests me.

- Bernard Sumner

Singing, How, Someone, Not Interested

I always felt like there were always egos involved when I was trying to get music finished in New Order. Sometimes it would feel like I was running through water.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Through, Always, Egos

I think that if you're on the same team, you should be pushing in the same direction.

- Bernard Sumner

Think, Same, I Think, Same Direction

I knew from working with New Order that I enjoyed working with Phil Cunningham.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Knew, Cunningham, Phil

In Salford, we had fish in our tap water. I remember, one hot summer day, running to the toilet at playtime and dunking our heads in a sink full of water. I remember putting my head in and seeing all these little fish in it.

- Bernard Sumner

I Remember, Had, Putting, Heads

I've realized that I owe people a look behind the scenes of my own story, because I don't think anyone can have a true understanding of the music without an insight into where it came from.

- Bernard Sumner

Behind, Own, Without, Scenes

Playing live is great, but it's not a creative thing, really. It's a reproductive thing.

- Bernard Sumner

Great, Playing, Thing, Reproductive

We played at a festival in Mexico City, at the same time as another famous artist, and I reckon we had 55,000 people watching New Order; the other had 7,000. I think from that I've discovered the secret of success in the music industry: don't do any promotion.

- Bernard Sumner

Other, I Think, Discovered, Music Industry

There's only two choices when life goes wrong. You deal with it, or you check out, and, like 90% of people, I go for the former.

- Bernard Sumner

Goes, Deal, Like, Former

If you go out and just play the old stuff and never write new stuff, you're not really a complete musician, you're a performer.

- Bernard Sumner

Play, New, Performer, Complete

It's impossible to capture every single facet of someone's personality in a film.

- Bernard Sumner

Personality, Single, Someone, Capture

Choosing a name for a band is always a difficult thing, and I don't think people should read too much into a name because, after all, it's just a handle. It doesn't mean anything.

- Bernard Sumner

Anything, Choosing, Too, Difficult Thing

By the time I was leaving school, there were no factories. There was no industry.

- Bernard Sumner

School, By The Time, Were, Leaving

There's parts of touring I like. I like the actual performance part, but the bit when you're in the airport waiting at the carousel for your bags to come around, I don't like that a bit.

- Bernard Sumner

Waiting, Like, Actual, Touring

In New Order, I played about 95% of the synths. It's not much fun for the other guys in the band when I'm playing my synth parts.

- Bernard Sumner

New, Other, About, Parts

If you choose to take a path in life, don't blame other people for the path you've chosen to take.

- Bernard Sumner

Path, Other, Take, Chosen

We're all private people, but as a musician, I think that once you get to the point where there's more of your life behind you than in front of you, you owe it to your public to explain yourself.

- Bernard Sumner

Think, Behind, Explain, Musician

II'm quite a successful musician, but I'm not sure if it's my vocation.

- Bernard Sumner

Vocation, Sure, Quite, Musician

I think if you take 'Get Ready,' 'Waiting For The Siren's Call,' 'Lost Sirens' - those three New Order albums were mostly guitar-based. There were a couple of dance tunes in there, but they were mainly guitar-oriented. They came about through jamming, a lot of them.

- Bernard Sumner

Through, Albums, Mostly, Siren

With guitar, bass and drums, you've got limited horizons.

- Bernard Sumner

Bass, Got, Limited, Drums

I was interested in Prozac from a personal point of view because I can be a bit moody - things do get on top of me sometimes - so I was quite keen to find out what it would do to my personality.

- Bernard Sumner

Point Of View, Sometimes, Keen

I think every day how incredibly lucky it is that I travel around the world playing to thousands of people.

- Bernard Sumner

Think, Lucky, I Think, Thousands

Landscape affects you.

- Bernard Sumner

You, Affects, Landscape

I like singing now, but I didn't at the start. I didn't think about singing, didn't know how to do it, so I hit the ground stumbling.

- Bernard Sumner

Singing, Think, Like, Ground

I like a challenge. I like learning new skills because I didn't learn much at school.

- Bernard Sumner

Learn, New, Like, Skills

You have to find balance. Whenever I start feeling stressed or not feeling myself, it's about balance, and it means I need to find it again.

- Bernard Sumner

Myself, Need, Means, Stressed

If I work on music, it'll be for 10 hours a day, so sometimes I'll feel stressed, and I'll go for a two-hour walk. That sorts me out.

- Bernard Sumner

Work, Sometimes, Hours, Stressed

I see all the musicians in Blur with equal standing, really.

- Bernard Sumner

See, Standing, Equal, Musicians

I was no good at anything else at school. But I was good at one thing, which was creativity.

- Bernard Sumner

School, Which, Else, Creativity

It can be an educational thing to play your songs to people because you see where you've gone right and where you've gone wrong.

- Bernard Sumner

Play, Right, Your, Educational

The story of New Order is all about learning from our mistakes.

- Bernard Sumner

Mistakes, New, About, New Order

If you start off writing an album with a band, the reality is that you're constantly in each other's company, so it's really important that you get on with each other.

- Bernard Sumner

Start, Other, Constantly, Album

People come up to me and say, 'You changed my life.' I don't think I changed anyone's life. I think their life changed while they were listening to the music.

- Bernard Sumner

My Life, Think, I Think, Listening

If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.