Quotes About Authenticity

I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person.

A record deal doesn't make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

I don't think you need a record deal to write songs. You don't need any other reason than you want to do it. It's a far cry from why some people do music today. They make it to order, which is pretty horrible.

Even before I got the record deal, I never really used singing to get girls. I always felt weird about that.

I keep in touch with these people who knew me long before I got a record deal.

'Nothing's Real' is about my first-ever panic attack, which I had about four months after getting my record deal.

I've had a record deal before and I was willing to do whatever they wanted me to do and I thought that would be it. By the end of it, you know, I hated myself.

I'm lucky enough to exist in 2018, where I have a record label that's like, 'Write whatever you want to write.' I don't have to hide anything.

I know a lot of people who jumped into a record label right away, dropped an album, and then nothing happened for them. Build your fan base first, and follow your gut.

I'd been doing my own thing, and making my own money; I wasn't built by a record label or the music industry, nor was I built by prominent artists that have given me co-signs.

I wanted to raise my kids to be strong, independent and follow their dreams and be themselves and make choices based on what they want not what the press, management or a record label or I don't care who it is... you stick to what you want and you be who you are and be proud of it.

The act is truth. Nothing that was ever recorded is truth. Nothing that was ever said is truth. Only the act.

I think what constitutes rock nowadays is people that actually play and sing. They can do the job live with no ProTools or embellishments or other recorded material.

Some guys record an album with songs that are filler. I recorded this album like it was my last.

I don't really have any interest in recording at places that are institutionalized for recording.

I've learned that I work best when I'm entirely naked. The recording process was done that way.

We want people to see us live before we continue on and call ourselves recording artists.

I'm making music the way I would have done before modern equipment and music recording.

I could play it safe by recording songs that are familiar, but am I expanding myself as an artist by doing covers? It's a catch-22. It's called show business: The word 'business' is in it, and you've got to be a businessman. But then again, you have to be true to yourself as an artist.

A recording of a performance is a recording of a performance. It's not the performance.

When I started The Shins, it really was just me, alone, but it was still The Shins. I was totally recording stuff and writing songs as The Shins and all of that. So the beginning inception of the whole thing was some sort of a lie, I guess.

I was recording my audiobook, and it's so weird. You write things, but then to have to say them out loud in front of people feels so different. So when I was recording my audiobook, I was telling an embarrassing story in front of, like, a room full of audio-tech people that I don't know, and I was like 'Oh my God, this is so cringe.'

There are still recording artists out there doing things for the right reason, but a lot of people seem to be just driven by fame.