Quotes About Artistry

We, the creative class, are finding ways to make a living making music, drawing webcomics, writing articles, coding games, recording podcasts. Most people don't know our names or faces. We are not on magazine covers at the grocery store. We are not rich, and we are not famous.

Our recordings, you feel that it's been, not labored, but you feel that it's been constructed in a way where sometimes it's hard for us to create the feeling that this was done in a room.

We never got anything out of the recordings. I'm still as broke as I was when I was with the Mothers.

I'm always on the prowl for the kinds of recordings that can inspire and potentially make a difference.

There are a bunch of songs that I think are beautiful recordings, and I'm proud of them, but I've no interest in listening to them.

'Your Dog' I tried to re-record at my house, like, four times after the studio recordings were done.

I really write at home on my own, and the demos themselves are very similar to the final recordings in a lots of ways.

If I think about the way I was drawn into the music, it was much more by recordings than by live performances.

I played cello on my early recordings, but that doesn't mean I'm a cellist, you know?

I'm very conscious of the fact that I devoted my life to recording music, recordings and writing songs.

There's nothing like Nashville for making records.

I just to put out the best records I can and perform the best I can.

I want to have hit records, but I'm not searching to say, 'All right, I need this to be in the club. I need this, that.' I'm just making quality music.

Once I'd heard 'Modern Times' by Bob Dylan, it really changed the way I wanted to make records.

I'll be writing records until I'm dead, whether people like it or not! I can't not write; if I don't, then I get really depressed. I'll keep going, I promise!

I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Motown records.

When I started recording, I thought I'd be able to do all kinds of records: jazz, country, dance - and I've always wanted to do a gospel album.

When I put out a record or single I don't allow myself to set up expectations like, 'This song must be a number one hit. Its got to sell X amount of records.'

Look, as long as we can make records and sell enough so we can do some shows, that's all I want. You know what? I just want to play guitar and be in a band. Same as I always did.

When I think of the artists I admire and seek out musically. It's because I'm curious about where they're going to go the next time they have a chance to put a record out. It's not about where I find them on the radio dial, or how many records they're selling.

The only album that I listen to upon recording a new one is my 'Cry' album, because sonically, I think it's my best album to date. But other than that, I've never listened to my records, ever.

I am always thinking about records I want to make.

Like with me, like around '97, for Christmas my parents bought me an MPC 2000 sampler and a little eight-track cassette recorder. And I started sampling records and, you know, producing hip-hop beats. And it got to the point where I realized - I innately realized that the music I liked the most was made by people that played instruments.

If you ever want to play bigger places, you need to have records that sound like you're playing in big places.