A lot of people label me as not a defender for some reason. I don’t know why.
The last album, ‘Falling Faster Than You Can Run.’ I was really proud of, but then I didn’t actually know whether it was going to come out on any label at all. So I didn’t know if anyone was going to hear it. Then of course we ended up doing another EP after that called ‘Closer.’
My label, my genre, my everything is happy sad – I do a smiley face with eyes on both sides. So basically to me, it’s totally okay to be happy and sad at the same time, it’s totally okay just to be sad, it’s totally okay to be happy.
A word is an arbitrary label – that’s the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a spell, incantation, curse, or prayer can change the world. Don’t snicker: Would you ever say, ‘Nothing has gone wrong yet’ without looking for wood to knock?
An artist is usually responsible only for the creation of a particular art. It’s up to the critics to label it.
I like for jewelry to tell a story and to be able to talk about what I’m wearing. That’s more important to me than a name, brand, or label.
‘Classic rock’ is never a label that we’ve given ourselves – it’s one of the many labels that’s been imposed on us.
The best advice is to avoid foods with health claims on the label, or better yet avoid foods with labels in the first place.
The title ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ is meant to be a deconstruction of a stereotype, and the whole show is about deconstructing the boxes that we’re supposed to be put into. We like taking apart the tropes and the stereotypes and explore the nuances, so ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ is a label that we go deep underneath to explore.
It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists… I’ve worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.
Don’t label me before we get a chance to talk about it. Talk to me first and see what kind of person I am. That’s what I like to tell the media: Come talk to me, let’s sit down and talk about what’s really going on.
We turned what is virtually a glorified independent label into one of the powerhouse labels in the town.
I was born Chinese, and I write in Chinese. I don’t think there’s any need to evade this… to a writer, as to a person, what matters is not his political label or his nationality, but whether he is a person and whether his work is worth looking at.
Once you label me you negate me.
You can now be a master of your own destiny. I’m not sure why you would sign up with a record label.
Every label thinks, when they sign someone, ‘This is the perfect pedigree to sign. They’re cute, they can sing, they can dance, et cetera.’ And they say to the public, ‘Here, this is what you’re gonna like.’ But you might say, ‘No, I don’t like that!’ You’ll probably say ‘no’ many more times than you’ll say ‘yes!’
People are going to label you anyway, but the one that bugs me the most is when they say, ‘One of the funniest female comedians.’ There’s s no ‘funniest male comedians.’ You’re either a funny comedian, or you’re not!
You know, independent films have been institutionalized, practically. Every studio has got a boutique arthouse label.
Signing with Fantasy is an absolute dream come true. It’s such a blessing to work with a label that truly cares about the soul of the music and to be on the same roster as artists that I’ve looked up to for as long as I can remember.
Leaving the record companies tweaked something inside me and I realised I don’t have to deal with labels to make something happen. If I want to meet someone, I don’t have to go through the label – I’ll just go to them. I took my life in my hands and social media has just helped me do that more.
Being a part of exhibitions is not a burden; it’s another way for an independent label such as mine to reach a larger audience by exposing them to my whole body of work.
I think most people would struggle to define their whole relationship with just one label – like: my girlfriend, boyfriend, brother, sister, confidantes, whatever – but in those moments, there’s true joy in each other.
All of my policy is not based on a label. It’s based on what I lived and what I know.
It’s weird to me when an artist comes in, and the label says, ‘We want him to sound like Chris Brown,’ but he says he wants to sound like Sean Paul. There’s a huge disconnect – it’s like we’re making a product.
Sometimes when we label something dystopian fiction, I feel like we’re trying very hard not to use the words ‘science fiction,’ because science fiction has those horrible connotations of rocket ships and bodacious babes.
I’m lucky enough to exist in 2018, where I have a record label that’s like, ‘Write whatever you want to write.’ I don’t have to hide anything.
Even an independent label is looking for a hit, they’re not looking for a record that’s not gonna do well.
Sometimes, you just get a label and it sticks.
‘Nice’ is not a common label for comedians, but it is for Canadians. I like it.
The pop world is cool, but I never really thought of myself as part of it or wanting to be a part of it because I’m on a label that’s not really like that. They’re not trying to dress me up, they’re not trying to do things like that. I feel like I’m sort of separate from that, actually.
Let’s just cut a live record with three microphones in four days and talk about lizards and aliens. If I had taken that idea to even an independent label, I don’t see a label out there that would’ve said, ‘Oh yeah, that sounds great. We know how to market this.’
Nine Inch Nails was born out of Cleveland, Ohio, with me and a friend in a studio working on demos at night. Got a record deal with a small, little label, went on tour in a van, and a couple years later found that somehow we touched a nerve, and that first record resonated with a bunch of people.
Neoconservatism’ once had a real meaning – back in the 1970s. But the label has now become meaningless. With many of those who are described as neocons, including me, fleeing the Trumpified right, the term’s sell-by date has passed.
Obviously, my label would want me to be on the radio all the time, but that’s not my personal goal.
I didn’t want to be on a major label. I wanted all the attention and the noise to go away because I wanted to be something a little bit more substantial.
I know I can’t rap forever, but I know as long as I got a label or something I can get money forever.
In 1970, my label decided I should do a Christmas album and I put a bunch of tunes together. We couldn’t decide what to call it and so I said ‘Why not just say Merry Christmas in Spanish? Feliz Navidad.’ They said, ‘That’s cool, Jose, but we need a title song.’ So I just sat down and started to play.
Can a label group by itself scale to make a sensible business? I don’t think so.
Just like food, you could think peanut butter is your favorite food for 5,000 years and then be like, ‘I actually like burgers better’, you know? I was just trying to say that kids and people in general don’t have to label themselves and say, ‘I’m straight’ or ‘I’m gay’ or ‘I’m whatever.’
I think I am this fun person, and people often label me cute. So I guess, me and my style are cute and fun! That’s the kind of person I am.
When Def Jam wanted to sign Method Man, they wanted to sign Method Man and Old Dirty. And Old Dirty wanted to be on Def Jam – everybody, that was like the dream label. But if I had Old Dirty and Method Man on Def Jam, that’s two key pieces going in the same direction, whereas there’s other labels that needed to be infiltrated.
Before I was ‘the captain’ with the label – because essentially, that’s all it is – I was a player, and before that, I was a fan of the game, fan of the team.
I think that ‘minimalist’ is a useful label for other people to identify me, but from my standpoint, I doesn’t necessarily have an identity as that.
For Black Label Special Opps, adversity is what you thrive on. General Patton is a huge fan favorite in Black Label.
What I am trying to do is create a space for people to explore what they want to be, as opposed to fit into a label that they have been given.
We live in a society that wants to label you with a color, sexuality, religion, or ethnicity. It divides us, but it also allows us to find pride in our identity.
When I first heard ‘Let Me Love You,’ I knew immediately it was going to be a hit. I believed in it and I had to literally force it down the throats of his record label, who weren’t believers at first.
The bad-boy label is just an assumption.
When I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it.
Doing things in my day was simple: you either signed to a big label or you signed to a very small label, and you worked with that one, and then they eventually signed you on to a big one.
For years, I wrote songs to try to get cuts or try to have hits or try to appease a label or to be famous. I was learning a lot of valuable tools about structure and how to articulate. I was getting really good at that.
If anything, I label myself as sort of Buddhist. My wife Jane is Buddhist.
There is no such condition as ‘schizophrenia’, but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event.
