I tend to start with a full set of lyrics, and then my producer, Joel Little, and I work on the music collaboratively.
When I speak a serious subject in an informal and humorous way, it has bigger impact. So much so, when BBC made a small documentary, they first thought of having a voiceover for me. The producer liked my English so much, he said they were retaining my original voice.
Back 20 years ago, I was recording with Bruce Springsteen, and his producer called me and said I had to be in the studio the next day to finish the sessions, and I couldn’t. I had to be in court, in California. All this took like 10 years out of my life.
I write a lot of my own music. I usually go in with a producer, and every now and then there will be another writer in the room.
What I do is I basically make records to please myself first and foremost, and so one of the most important things for me as a musician and a writer and a producer is to feel like there’s always a sense of evolution and reinvention with each record.
I think that being a producer is business and being an actor is art.
I do think I’m lucky I met Michael. Not just Michael Douglas the actor and producer with two Oscars on the shelf, but Michael Douglas, the love of my life. I really do think it was meant to happen.
Assuming that Iran could become the only oil producer unable to export its oil is a wrong assumption… The United States will never be able to cut Iran’s oil revenues.
It’s only when a project or film doesn’t work, that you think about what you could have done differently – whether you chose unwisely, or was there something in your application in that role, as an actor, as a director or as a producer, that you could have done better.
I want to get into producing. I really learned a lot from ‘Girls Next Door.’ Kevin Burns is a great producer. He’s really talented, and he taught me a lot. I’m just looking forward to spreading the wings a little bit. Five seasons on ‘Girls Next Door’ was great, but it gets a little repetitive.
My dad is a successful television producer, director and writer, and my mom’s a director and writer. Even when I was young, I wanted to be an actress.
Superstars come and go. I want to make sure I am always a producer’s actor. I may be refused to be called a great actor but I have never troubled any of my producers in my life. Honesty always catches the camera, and that is what my strength is.
My uncle is an actor, my dad is a producer, so they asked me if I was interested, and I was like, ‘How can someone act in front of so many people with lights and emote.’
If the packaging is good – the actors, director and producer – then it will work, even if the product is not good.
Whereas my producer literally worked on this thing for 10 years and because I gave that presenter credit to David Lynch, she to this day never gets credit. It really kills me.
With newcomers in your cast, any producer would allocate a budget of not more than Rs 5-6 crores. But the scale I wanted was big and Sardar Peshaura Singh Thind left no stone unturned in the making of ‘I Am Singh.’
I could not see myself going back into the studio without Tommy Dowd, our beloved producer who passed away in 2002. Then in 2009, Michael Lehman, my manager, really pushed me to meet with T Bone Burnett. I ended up meeting with T Bone in Memphis, and we hit it off right away; I knew he was a guy I could work with.
I’m used to working with the director and producer, and that’s my relationship. It’s very simple.
I am happy being an actor. Donning the hat of a producer was a tough job and a different experience, as it involved watching the crew’s requirements, keeping track of the finances, and also perfecting my role as an actor. But it was a tremendous learning experience.
I’ve always relied on a big producer and big studios. I had budgets that were ridiculous.
Honestly, I want to do films. I want to make that move from actor to producer, like Will Smith.
E-books, which made their debut in the 1990s, cut costs even more for both consumer and producer, though as the Internet expanded, those roles became confused.
There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.
I’m not a producer and I don’t even know the places my producer goes to, thankfully.
I would like – either as an actor, or producer or even director – to do something sci-fi or action-related. I like sci-fi, always have, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’ and all that stuff.
I had done another show called ‘United States of Cars,’ which was a pilot that didn’t get picked up. And they said, ‘You know, we’re doing ‘Top Gear,’ and would you like to meet the guys?’ It was the wild – most wild audition I ever had because I never went to a studio or a producer’s office.
The big producer is going to figure out how to deal with whatever the rules are, but the little guy who is running a few hundred units or maybe feeding 1,500 cattle a year, how will they ever comply with these requirements?
It’s very hard to not give in, to sell your soul: to flatter a more experienced male person of power, a producer or director, in order to get what you want. You feel a pressure to flutter your eyelashes and flirt because you know that will work, and I think it’s admirable to not do that.
I still can’t quite believe it. Although there was something about the fact that it was a first-time writer, a first-time producer, and a first-time director all at the same time.
Texas has long been known as the nation’s largest energy producer, but we are equally proud of our distinction as the nation’s leading energy innovator.
I never, my producer never, we never let myself just sing. We were always trying to get the perfect vocal.
‘TTM’ started off being a feature. A producer wanted me to just hop on the beat, like a Diplo type of thing. When I recorded the song, I liked it a lot, and I figured, instead of them paying me to do this, I’d rather just use this for my project, and we can just get money together.
I’m the only female producer on Impact, and they’re very supportive, the men.
Oh, yes, that never happened to me in my life before. It was a risky film, and I warned the producer.
I’ve always been a producer – that’s how I see myself first. The DJing came second as a way for me to be able to perform.
I like to make records sound good. I’m more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what’s the point?
I went from the most underground band in the world to signing with Madonna’s producer and a record label that is extremely mainstream – it was interesting.
The new discovery of a 3.3 billion barrel oil deposit off Norway’s coast cements that nation’s claim to being Europe’s second largest oil producer.
Working as a producer, an arranger, and, in some cases, as a writer for some other people gave me a super different perspective.
Filmmaking has always involved pairs: a director coupled with a producer, a director alongside an editor… The notion of couples is not foreign to cinema.
When I’m interviewing on the sofa for ‘This Morning’ it just feels like an intimate chat. Yes, there can be a producer talking through your earpiece but it all becomes second nature after a while.
I think writing and singing go together, but I treat them as two separate careers because I write for others. If I’m writing for myself, I prefer to be with the producer. And then we can vibe out and throw ideas back and forth, and I’ll basically let the producer play me a bunch of beats until I vibe with one.
When I recorded ‘Cooler Than Me’, I had been singing for like, three months at the most. I was just a producer experimenting with my voice on tracks, and now I’m, like, a really good singer in a legit way.
If I have enough ego to say I’m a writer, a director, a producer, and an actor, I should have the energy and the knowledge to write a scene for this great actor named Henry Fonda and direct him in it and have it work.
Each additional idea is a gift to the future. Each additional idea producer is a source of wealth for future generations.
Some people see Jermaine Dupri as a producer, and they don’t really know what the songwriting skills are.
On a practical level I’m a TV producer and storyteller who’s gone about as long as you can go without achieving a mass audience.
I famously had a huge television producer say to me one time, ‘Can you please stop doing that to your face? It’s very distracting and unattractive.’ And I was like, ‘You mean move it? Okay, sorry, I guess we’re not going to work together.’
India needs better producers than screenwriters. No producer wants to invest in out-of-the way scripts.
Even as an actor, much before I turned director or producer, I was somebody who was very involved with every film I was doing. I would pretty much be a part of a project from the time they toss the ball to the marketing. It’s very simple.
If you screw up five films straight, then you’re done. It’s a business, the producer invests money and you need to make sure his money is recovered and in the process you give out the best film.
When I’m not singing, I’m a lot of persons: I’m a producer. I’m a badminton player. I’m a writer. I’m a movie freak. I’m a documentary maker.
I don’t think I’m the world’s greatest producer or songwriter or anything.
