Quotes About Artistry

There's a few times in the past when I wrote a song, and I put the words together, and they were very clear pictures, and I felt like I was putting together a really good story. But I don't think I was ever really able to stay on that. What I've sort of developed lyrically is more about the sound of the vocals and what they are.

I pride myself on having a really authentic music sound: no gimmicks, just my vocals.

There's a lot of trickery that can go on in the studio, and there's a lot that one can do - none of which I am interested in even slightly. I mean, you can actually tune vocals and stuff like that, but it's so hideous, I can't believe it.

The records I make, I'm there from the writing of the first note through the click tracks to the miking of the drums to the editing of everything to the production to the vocals to the artwork.

If you are blessed with good vocals then it doesn't mean you start picking up anyone's song and start singing it. You should sing less but with quality.

We have grafted, we write our own music, we are great performers - we put our life and soul into it. So when people say, 'Why are they wearing that?' you just want to say, 'Did you hear the vocals? Did you see the performance? Did you see how much went into it?'

I want to be able to show my vocals off and when I do do live performances, I'm going to do some acoustics just with a guitar and a stripped back version.

I'm always saying in the studio, 'My vocals are too loud!' or 'My vocals have too much effect on them!' I like some of it, but I'm not a fan of loading effects onto my voice.

I usually like to hide my vocals behind the music. I don't like to hide them consciously, but I have a tendency to prefer the vocal at the same level as everything else and put lots of reverb on it.

I do guest vocals all the time.

I've always loved the sound of female vocals.

With Rage, we wrote riff rock and had rap vocals, so we didn't really concern ourselves with melody for the most part.

Bob was chosen by my record company to help with my vocals, and our relationship developed through the music.

In my own studio, I can just lock the door and record myself, do layers of vocals not knowing how they are going to turn out, and just scrap it if it doesn't work. It's my space. I'm running everything.

The only condition of fighting for the right to create is faith in your own vocation, readiness to serve, and refusal to compromise.

No matter what I try to do or explore, my Kirov training, my expertise, and my background call me to return to dancing after all, because that's my real vocation, and I have to serve it.

Man, I just feel so fortunate to be a jazz musician at all. I have a hard time thinking of it any other way. It's such a fulfilling vocation. I love it.

People often ask us if we had direct influences. Honestly, just a lot of different music - not necessarily individual people. We listen to anything from Bob Dylan to Massive Attack to Aerosmith to En Vogue. We very much enjoy all that music.

It is the closest instrument to the human voice, and the things you can do on the cello... there are endless possibilities.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.

I then realized that I could never be satisfied again with the mere natural charm of my voice, that I had to constantly paint when singing, melting all the colors, expressing reds and blacks that had to be less primary but bursting with subtly colored combinations.

I'm not saying I'm even half as talented or a quarter as talented as any of the people I'm inspired by, but if I hear a beat Busta Rhymes would absolutely kill, I'll use my voice to do a flow similar to his.

Who's to say what's a good voice and not a good voice?

There is a voice, and there is a DNA to how I design.