I wear my heart on my sleeve, and whatever I was giving, it was just coming from my natural place at that time. And you know, some albums I’ve made, I look back and think they were great, and then some I look at, and I think that wasn’t right at the time.
I’m dead serious about my craft and just really serious about making music in itself. I take pride in making songs and albums where no two songs sound alike. That’s the challenge and that’s what it’s all about, to keep it original and fresh and funky.
I feel like there’s a lot of albums that are like ‘woo! we’re young, let’s have fun’ and there’s a lot of albums that are abstract, with mature lyrics.
Over four or five years, I did six albums with three people: John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Patti Smith. I felt that if I could care as much about their music as they did, I could be useful to them. I really cared about their music and their lives.
I think if you take ‘Get Ready,’ ‘Waiting For The Siren’s Call,’ ‘Lost Sirens’ – those three New Order albums were mostly guitar-based. There were a couple of dance tunes in there, but they were mainly guitar-oriented. They came about through jamming, a lot of them.
It’s so easy to make albums with overdubbing and editing these days, but I really prefer playing live and just getting the music to sound right because the musicians, the songs and the performances are good.
I’m not the mixtape guy who’s gonna put out a new one every month. I’m gonna allow my albums to marinate and resonate and whatever type of ‘ates’ they can do. I’m gonna let my music grow on them.
I never download anything; it’s crazy! We must keep buying albums and DVDs.
A letdown is worth a few songs. A heartbreak is worth a few albums.
By the time Guns n’ Roses spent 28 months from 1991 to 1993 touring the ‘Use Your Illusion’ albums, the tour staff sometimes approached 100 people. We were carrying not only backup girl singers, a horn section, and an extra keyboard player, but also chiropractors, masseuses, a singing coach, and a tattoo artist.
I couldn’t have written things like ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes,’ those particular albums, if it hadn’t have been for Berlin and the kind of atmosphere I felt there.
I didn’t grow up working on 24-track – the first two Taste albums were eight-track and we always had tracks left over – we couldn’t believe it, either!
‘Vol. 3’ is the most pleasing of our albums to me. And I want to keep making albums that are different from each other. And you can bet all our albums will have that twist that only Slipknot can do.
I grew up in the era of the concept album. What I do now is pick up on singles, and they are their own complete stories; you don’t necessarily have to hear the rest of the album because I don’t think albums are created like that anymore. They get songs from all over the place.
I thought I would be governor of Massachusetts. I stood on a pile of my old albums and said, ‘I’m the only one with a record to stand on.’
I’m an obsessive musical theatre person, so some of the most formative albums for me were, you know, the ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ soundtrack or ‘Into The Woods.’
I am completely attached to my roots, and therefore you will see a Pahadi touch in all my albums.
I’ve more than 50 hits in Bengali cinema and it’s a great feeling to have them released separately in the form of albums that are independent of the movies.
I definitely don’t subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated.
If I didn’t start singing in the cabarets and on my albums, I could have never even tried something like ‘Capone.’
When I begin working on a production, I don’t really think about my previous album or albums. I try to have a real creative process.
One day when I was like 9, I heard the Beatles on the radio, and I asked my dad who they were. He told me they were the best band in the world, and I became obsessed. He started giving me their albums in sequential order, and I listened to them – and only them – until I was probably in high school.
For many years, I’ve wanted to do one, and I’ve always mentioned it to the chieftains, and they would say things like, ‘Oh well. Christmas albums don’t sell,’ and things like that. But that’s not the point. Christmas albums are important. The music is important. The season is important.
I love listening to old records. Stuff from the ’70s, even disco and funk records and a lot of early rock albums – what’s great about those recordings is that you can actually hear the true tones of the drums themselves.
Sample clearances and roll-out plans is what separates mix-tapes & albums.
For 10 years, I had a band called Steel Train. We made three albums. We toured like crazy.
Steve Martin’s comedy albums are so ridiculous.
Guru always titled the Gang Starr albums. But once it came to ‘Hard to Earn,’ he wanted me to title it.
TV ads let people know you’re still around. Not only do they sell albums, they give you a high profile. They let people know you’re out there and working.
Albums are chapters. They’re part of a story.
I’m the eldest at 51, and if the Stones can drag themselves around once more, then there’s a few more albums in us.
There was a time when poetry often made its way to vinyl; take a deep dive, for example, into the beat poets’ countercultural albums of the 1950s to ’80s.
I didn’t want to play it boring and safe. I also didn’t want to innovate too much. Second albums, man, they’re even scarier than first ones.
I’m not interested so much in collaboration. You see that from the history of my albums.
It has been an honor to paint on stage and have my art grace the albums and stage sets of renowned musicians.
I always try to put something personal on my albums just to give people out there a little piece of my history and how I got where I am and who I am.
When I was three years old, one of the first albums I ever heard was Michael Jackson’s ‘Off the Wall.’
The only albums that I have personally named were ‘number 5,’ ‘number 8’ and ‘number 10.’
My girlfriend is rap. Music and albums and records and my kids.
I mean, I love buying albums, I’m obsessed, but now you just click ‘add’, don’t you? And when do you actually listen to anything? You know, unless you’re in the car or you’ve got time to do that, it’s just not the same world any more in terms of concentration.
After Bad English, I made three albums back-to-back that I still think is my best work, but it wasn’t meant to be toured.
I love doing third albums. A group makes its first album, and then the record company rushes them into the studio to make their second album. After that, they go, ‘Whoa, wait a second.’ They get a little more confident. They step back and say, ‘Okay, now we’re gonna do it.’
I always had an eye toward the stage for the story of Hamilton’s life, but I began with the idea of a concept album, the way Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Evita’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ were albums before they were musicals.
I’d always listened to my parents’ Bee Gees albums.
One thing I always hated with CDs is when people started putting 65 to 75 minutes on their albums.
In the past, I’ve been a bit diffident about my own albums, almost excusing them for some reason, even though deep down I felt strongly about them.
It’s easier for me to remember things based on the releases of albums. The year is such an arbitrary thing.
Hopefully it will be possible to get all our other albums in American shops one day so if people are interested they can hear it but I’m hoping that people are going to be interested in what we are going to do, not just what we’ve done.
‘In My Hands,’ the title track, is my very first vocal attempt, and I’m not a singer as such. But I’ve always wanted to express myself vocally on my albums, and I don’t really have much of a capability for singing. The strength is in, I think, the lyrics and just speaking. It just comes from inside.
I hate negative songs; I won’t sing them. It doesn’t matter if it’s sold 2 million more albums.
There’s plenty for me to do. There are more albums. I’ll record as long as I can and as long as my voice works as well as it does now and for as long as people want to hear me.
With my first three albums I did everything on my own. It was what I was used to and where I felt comfortable. I would write the lyrics and music and hide the songs from everyone until I felt confident enough for anyone to hear them.
As far as Cheap Trick albums, I like the Red Ant record, which is just called ‘Cheap Trick,’ from 1997; that’s my second-favorite album.
The Raspberries had recorded some ballads on every one of our albums, but after ‘Go All The Way’ was successful Capital pretty much wanted to hear nothing but ‘Go All The Way.’
I’ve been making demos at home for many albums now. So over those years, I’ve learned how to record music, and I love being at home. I excel when I can make things at home.
I’m real settled with what I’ve done. The albums are really fun to make but I don’t really like to be out on the road now.
I started in a band called ‘Timbiriche’, we toured the world when I was 8; I have 23 albums.
People don’t really listen to albums anymore. They just find good songs.
