I believe there is little to gain by exchanging opinions with other artists concerning either the ideology of art or technical methods.
I’m rarely grabbed by anything the way I was when I was 10 years younger. About the only relatively new artists whose albums I own are Beck, and They Might Be Giants.
Even in modern art, artists have used methods based on calculation, inasmuch as these elements, alongside those of a more personal and emotional nature, give balance and harmony to any work of art.
Artists are going to be the metronome of this society.
The number of contemporary artists who appeal to me is infinitesimal.
But in the old days, visual artists used to fall into two distinct categories: those of us who created images with cameras and those of us who applied stuff onto other stuff, with brushes or other tools.
And it’s sad because it’s like a surprise to people – almost an anomaly – when artists are actually refined and trained on an instrument. That’s the last thing people think about.
Even at my biggest, I want to be writing for other artists. Even at my peak – the highest I can be as an artist – I always want to be keeping my creative juices flowing, keeping money in the bank, putting my intellectual property out there.
I’ve always gotten along best with artists.
There are so many artists that have inspired me.
Everything we do helps the new artists in the long run.
If I were not able to separate the art from the artists, I think I would limit myself a great deal, and life wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.
The aboriginal women leaders of Papunya – the Papunya Artists – performed a dance for me: the Honey Ant dance. They’d never done it for anyone else. They honoured me with a ceremonial stick that signifies the story of the land.
When I first came out, like a lot of the artists at that time, I had a very polished, very overproduced sound.
My responsibility is to the artist first. There’s something that artists intrinsically know about their music and their fanbase that neither the record company nor the producer really knows.
I got into dub a long time ago. I was into dub before I even had any interest in reggae or Jamaican songs, Bob Marley, or any of those established artists. I just thought it was such an unusual sound.
I hope my work has inspired young artists. I have always tried to maintain my freedom as an artist and I feel it is one of the main reasons I have been successful.
I think people would actually be surprised by what we put out. Unfortunately the shadow that the original founders cast was that they were just artists that can’t write books so people swept the whole of Image with that paintbrush.
I grew up with all kinds ofmusic, but my heart was particularly drawn to Country Music because of the guitar playing, the lyrics and of artists like Steve Warner and Vince Gill.
When I came back to California in the early ’60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.
My favorite artists are Kanye West, Jay Z, the Fugees, Lauryn Hill, Destiny’s Child.
When I think of artists I love, like J. Cole, it’s the storytelling that grabs me. I want to be honest with my music.
I always tell my audiences not to listen to such artists who play audio CDs at their concerts. Such shows shouldn’t be called live shows. People like AR Rahman, Sunidhi Chauhan, and Arijit Singh are the ones who hold true concerts.
I’m interested in how artists and writers do this, using art as therapy. Escaping into the worlds we create. We’re all victims and few of us are truly free.
I was being an artist, being sensitive and technical as artists are. I’m sure Leonardo Da Vinci did that. Artists don’t always feel the same as others feel about their work.
Artists and scientists are very close. They always have been, but I think we’ve just been divided out over the last few centuries into specialisms. Leonardo da Vinci was drawing helicopters and all kinds of things. We’re artificially divided. I think we’re closer than we think we are.
There’s artists that I’m working with on a new label of mine. Foxy Nova and Supa Nova.
Some artists are working to buy the mansion or whatever the element of fame must bear, but I spend all my money on my show.
Lauryn Hill’s always been a hero of mine. And Bruno Mars, Janelle Monae and Adele, those are the current artists I would reference in terms of who’s been able to do really amazing pop records with really cool, organic throwback elements of soul in there as well.
It’s not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it’s about paying tribute to them.
You can get really left of centre influences in mainstream pop. Michael Jackson and Prince are some of the most progressive artists ever if you actually dissect their songs there’s some crazy stuff going on.
My parents were very, very good about not separating us as kids from their adult friends. So on any given night, we’d have, like, this kind of freak show – artists and art dealers coming over. And these are the people I feel like I learned from.
Honestly, I always think it’s cool when artists name their first album after themselves. It’s confident it just means like this is me, this is my project, here you go.
The art, the greatness of the music, the experience of the music is what I’m about. I think most African artists have destroyed their artistry by commercialization, and I don’t want to belong to that bag.
You see so many artists who are so talented end up living sad, empty lives. This industry takes so much out of you that without the accountability and leaving God in the center, you can be left so empty and void.
Oh first, let me tell you how amazed I am by the wealth of talents in the Philippines. I remember watching a lot of home videos about Filipino artists, and they are really very talented. That really motivated me to always do my best and to stay inspired.
I think this confusion leads intellectuals and artists themselves to believe that the elite arts and humanities are a kind of higher, exalted form of human endeavor.
All artists draw from their lives, except they mask it and camouflage it… which is the smarter way to do it.
To be a mentor for up-and-coming artists is right up my alley.
There are so many great artists that are doing interesting things, that I don’t want to focus on boring people.
It always makes me sad when I think of how I saw Wagner wasting his vitality, not only by singing their parts to some of his artists, but acting out the smallest details, and of how few they were who were responsive to his wishes.
When I was little, my dad told me about Anandpur Sahib and the court of Guru Gobind Singh. That we came from a tradition of poets, warriors and artists who created when it was illegal to create… we’re groomed to be reckless in the defense of what we feel is right.
Europeans really provided many venues over there and hailed the jazz artists, and a lot of musicians went over there and stayed over there for a long time. A lot of them moved over there, lived over there, and died over there.
Talent can be developed, gift is God-given. But artists have both.
Maybe the way we have learned to look has changed in the last 25 years, and the exotic is much more acceptable. There are many artists now, younger artists, who work out of the exotic.
I think the great artists, especially in literature, have always thought with the heart.
I have been inspired by countless artists over the years, but there’s also times when you just gotta make your own inspiration.
I think for new artists the hardest thing is putting the face with a name. People maybe heard our song on the radio or something but until they get several impressions of who you are – from whatever it is, whether TV or a live show, I feel like they don’t quite connect the dots.
But with rap music – not just N.W.A. – but rap music in general, seeing these artists wearing these team logos all the time started bringing a synergy and energy about having to rep your city, your team, everywhere and all the time.
Some artists are bound to an image: Bob Marley has dreadlocks, Matisyahu has a beard. But that’s a reminder that the whole thing is not about style. It’s about music.
All men are somewhat ridiculous and grotesque, just because they are men; and in this respect artists might well be regarded as man multiplied by two. So it is, was, and shall be.
Fraud really thrives in moments of great social change and transition. We’re in the midst of a technological revolution. That gives con artists huge opportunities. People lose their frame of reference for what can and can’t be real.
Once we start collecting, the more you have, the more it gets valuable and that will stop us from responding to the present and taking on new ideas what the artists are doing now.
There have been artists who’ve sold out arenas one year, and the next they can’t fill a theatre. There’s always more to achieve.
True artists are almost the only men who do their work for pleasure.
Swavey is a musical genre that I came up with to describe artists who are too talented to stay in a box with their music.
No one could have ever prepared me for the whole world judging me and comparing to other artists. But what’s most important is that you have to be a good person and care about others and carry yourself well.
