Gnarls' Woody

New York Times Magazine just did an article on Gnarls Barkley, which can be found here. Overall it's pretty good, and interesting to hear what Danger Mouse has to say when not interviewed by Pitchfork. One part that I thought was particularly cool though is in the beginning, when Danger Mouse talks about how he wants to make music like Woody Allen makes movies:

"I don't make a band's next album," he says. "I don't like making someone else's songs better. I'm not interested in that. This is where the Woody Allen thing comes back in. I have to be in control of the project I'm doing. I can create different kinds of musical worlds, but the artist needs the desire to go into that world. I won't fight with people to try and make the sounds I hear inside my head. What I want is for the leader of a group to come to me, and then I lead that person. Because even with some of my favorite bands, I only like 30 or 40 percent of what they do. I'd want to make that 30 percent into the whole album."

What do you guys think about the artist's desire to go into the world he's created? I'm trying to look at it from an authorial standpoint, which is obviously problematic, because unless you want to write yourself into your own story (aka be an asshole/postmodern) you can't interject yourself into your work in quite the same way. But I'm not sure of too many other directors who cast themselves in their own movies, or who even write characters so clearly based on themselves. But then again, I'm not sure of too many other directors that I like as much as Woody Allen, or that have made a body of work as impressive as his. So go figure. I'm not sure what my point is here, but it's an interesting idea I hadn't thought of before.