Quotes About Artistry

I'm a trumpet player, and I sing jazz.

When I play the trumpet, I'm in a different character.

Because of my register, Miles Davis' trumpet playing has always been a big influence on my singing. I've always been intrigued by the way he can start anywhere and make it right.

I first heard Miles Davis as a student, when I was struck by his extraordinary musicianship, and his work did affect some of the sounds of Simply Red. He was one of the reasons I chose to have a muted trumpet on 'Holding Back the Years.'

To play the trumpet, you have to use that diaphragm, and it's the same if you want to sing correctly. You really need to push it out from there. And I think that's what has kept me going as a singer.

I'm gonna be making records anyway, even if I had to sell 'em out of the trunk of my car. I'm that kind of musician and singer.

When you think of Rihanna's voice, you think of this whole, rich thing, solid like a tree trunk.

At the end of the day, you're handing your performance over. If a director says after a take, 'You know what, try it just really angry. Just get furious'... you're like, 'Well, I don't know if I want to give you that because I don't know if I trust what you're going to do with it.'

To me, the real thrill is in making the music, and then I just trust it to find its own audience, and at times it's big and at times it's small, but that's beyond my control.

To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.

I think for me, I just love that trust you have with theater and your ensemble and people you are working with.

I see some artists who disown songs they love when they don't chart well. Would you do that to your children? Trust me, children ain't gonna do all the right things, so are you gonna disown them or embrace them and say, 'No, you're still my child. You didn't go out and do the right thing, but I'll still love you in the same way?'

You wouldn't want to be in a rock band - trust me.

I'm a big fan of being able to hold those long shots and use space. I don't know, I think everything's so quick cut these days, as if films are too afraid that the audience is going to get bored instead of relaxing and trusting their work.

The truth is, I initially became a singer-songwriter while still in my teens because it was the only way to guarantee that somebody on earth would sing the songs I was writing. Since then, I've performed just about everywhere: rock clubs, concerts halls, arenas, TV.

Acting's not about nose jobs and liposuction. It's about being truthful to what you're doing.

When I sing, I close my eyes. If I see a feather, everything is fine. Without this image in my mind, the sound is not 'truthful' enough, and I must begin again. I have to.

I had the question asked of me before, 'What do you like better: singing or playing guitar?' If I'm gonna be totally truthful, if that microphone's in my hand, I'm loving it. When the guitar's in my hand, I'm a little nervous, but I'm still loving it.

Every time I collaborate with an artist, I want to surprise fans. I want to do something new.

As an artist, you have a path that you're on that evolves with the kinds of stories you want to tell.

Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. I'd say what any decent poet would say if anyone dared ask him to analyze his work: if you see it, darling, then it's there!

I think about legacy a lot, hopefully at the end of the day they say I was a good bluesman. That's all I want.

There's only a certain amount of works you can make, so you have to make only the ones you really want to make. It's all about trying to be as productive as possible.

I usually have a very clear idea of where I want a song to go, sometimes very specific notes, but I'm generally open to suggestions.