“I've had a very different career than a lot of other musicians. I went through the major labels. I was signed to two major labels and bands. I've toured with Aerosmith, and I've had records on the charts, songs in the movies. If you had checklist of things a person wants to accomplish in music...I've done a lot. And I don't mean that in an egotistical way; I never take it for granted. But you can't think outside the box unless you know what's in the box.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayWantMeanPersonsTwoDifferentDoneSongCareersRecordsBandMajorsMusicianBoxesAccomplishGrantedLabelsEgotisticalOutside The BoxThink Outside The BoxChecklistsAerosmith Author:Michael Angelo Batio
“I recently realized that Television has influenced a lot of English bands. Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, Teardrop Explodes - it's obvious what they've listened to and what they're going for. When I was sixteen I listened to Yardbirds records and thought, "God, this is great." It's gratifying to think that people listened to Television albums and felt the same.” PeopleThinkingFeltRecordsTelevisionBandAlbumsObviousEchoesSixteenTeardrop Author:Tom Verlaine
“I want to be in cahoots with bands who want to make the record of their dreams.” WantDreamRecordsBand Author:Steve Albini
“When you're in a band with three writers, three great writers, you only get one third of the writer thing. So that's the whole reason that I did a solo career. And that's, you know, when I told Fleetwood Mac I was going to do that, they were of course terrified that I would do that record and then that I would quit.” KnowsReasonWholeThreeCoursesCareersRecordsBandThirdsQuittingTerrifiedSoloMacsGreat WritersFleetwood Mac Author:Stevie Nicks
“I became Iggy because I had a sadistic boss at a record store. I'd been in a band called the Iguanas. And when this boss wanted to embarrass and demean me, he'd say, 'Iggy, get me a coffee, light.'” LightWantedRecordsBandStoresCoffeeBossSadisticRecord StoresIguanas Author:Iggy Pop
“For me the idea was always throw myself into different situations and push your imagination as far as you can to get to where you want to get to. I think a lot of bands make the same record over and over again because they're married to the same three or four people. At some point they've done all they can do with their own imaginations.” PeopleThinkingWantIdeasDifferentDoneThreeCan DoImaginationSituationRecordsFourBandMarried Author:Mark Oliver Everett
“Just getting movies made is difficult because it takes a lot of money; I mean, it costs more money to make one movie than most bands will spend on every single record of their entire career; it's a huge undertaking.” MeanMadeDifficultCareersRecordsHugeCostBandMore MoneyLots Of MoneyUndertakings Author:Rob Zombie
“If you heard my records and no one told you, I don't think you'd know whether it's a band or one guy.” IfsThinkingKnowsGuyRecordsHeardBand Author:Lenny Kravitz
“I started listening to classical music when I was in my early teens. Prior to that, I listened to pop records or band records.” RecordsListeningBandPopsTeensClassical Music Author:Stephen Sondheim
“The first time I ever saw Lydia Lunch perform it was a religious experience. Not only is she intelligent and beautiful but she actually understands how "my" brain works. This almost rivals my first concert- Cindy Lauper when I was 12. She was so fascinating to me at the time. She made me want to dye my hair pink and start a band. (SO I naturally did)... All Cure records have had a great effect on me musically also.” WantFirstsMadeBeautifulReligiousBrainRecordsSawsEffectsHairBandFirst TimeIntelligentCuresFascinatingConcertsLunchRivalsReligious ExperienceCindy Author:Jessicka
“I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it - like, they say "rock". Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him "soul". They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap.” YearsSoulKidsUsedEnjoySoundWhiteCompanyRecordsRocksListeningBandPrejudiceRadioSingersLabelsBrownCrapRecord Companies Author:Miles Davis
“I'm gonna design my own fleet of trailers. No! I'm gonna record an album like Jennifer Lopez. It'll be an acoustic version of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Then maybe I'll design a line of clothes like Puff Daddy, but all in synthetic fur.” LinesMy OwnRecordsDesignBandClothesAlbumsVersionsSunshineDaddyFurAcousticsTrailersJenniferPuffSynthetic Author:Brad Pitt
“I saw the Ramones, early on at a country-rock palace in Denver. They were opening for some record-company band, so the local music establishment, and I emphasize the word "establishment," was there in force, and the handful of us who knew the Ramones were up in front. And half the fun was, you know, not only were the Ramones the most powerful band I had ever seen at that point, but they made it look so simple - that anyone could do it, hell, even I could do it. This is what I should be doing.” KnowsShouldLooksMadeCountryFunForceSimplePowerfulHalfCompanyHellRecordsSawsRocksFrontsBandLocalsOpeningMade ItMost PowerfulEstablishmentHandfulPalacesRecord CompaniesDenverRamones Author:Jello Biafra
“I can do whatever I want, I can have my band, I can use different people, I can use studio players, it's complete, total freedom for me. If I want to make a video, now that I own my own record company, if the video has an American flame being engulfed by a huge puddle of oil, I can do that, I can say that if I want to.” PeopleIfsWantI CanDifferentUseCan DoMy OwnCompanyRecordsPlayerHugeBandStudiosOilVideoFlamesDifferent PeoplesRecord CompaniesPuddles Author:Richard Patrick
“I heard a quote once in a documentary about a band that said you're better off owning everything 100 percent and selling 20,000 copies of an album than signing with a record company and selling a million copies. There has never been a truer statement about show business than that.” SaidShowsCompanyMillionsRecordsHeardBandPercentAlbumsStatementsSellingCopiesDocumentariesBetter OffShow BusinessSigningRecord Companies Author:Bill Burr
“My school music teacher, Al Bennest, introduced me to jazz by playing Louis Armstrong's record of "West End Blues" for me. I found more jazz on the radio, and began looking for records. My paper route money, and later, money I earned working after school in a print shop and a butcher shop went toward buying jazz records. I taught myself the alto saxophone and the drums in order to play in my high school dance band.” EndsPlaySchoolOrderFoundRecordsTeacherChildhoodTaughtBandPaperHigh SchoolJazzWestRadioBuyingShopsPrintAlsRoutesButchersSaxophoneArmstrongAfter SchoolMusic TeacherWest EndJazz Records Author:Bill Crow
“At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.” WritingYearsBookShowsSongMy OwnRecordsBandScreensI RealizedReleaseLabelsShirtsT ShirtPublishSilk Author:Dave Grohl
“I want the new band to work together for a while, and when we're ready we'll invite every major record company to see us.” WantTogetherCompanyRecordsReadyBandMajorsWorking TogetherInvitesRecord Companies Author:Tommy Bolin
“I was going to record a solo album when I was 15 on a four-track. I started working on it, but then Fall Out Boy happened. The band was awesome and took me in a totally different direction. I don't regret it at all, but the band delayed the record I had been planning.” DifferentFallBoysRecordsFourHappenedRegretBandTrackAlbumsPlanningSoloDifferent DirectionsDelayedDon't RegretFall Out Boy Author:Patrick Stump
“I had to get out of my record deal that I signed with my previous band and get a full solo record deal going so, with all of the paperwork that, that entails it did take a while.” DealsRecordsBandSoloPaperwork Author:Sebastian Bach
“I always freak out when people ask me about my favorite bands or my five favorite records, I just can never do that because it goes through different waves and sometimes you want to listen to something and at other times you want to listen to something else so I don't know.” PeopleKnowsWantDifferentSometimesAsksRecordsFiveBandMy FavoriteWaveAsk MeFreakFavorite Bands Author:John Bush
“If the song was upbeat, we'd get out a funky Harry Connick, Jr. album, some Louis Prima big band, or a Bob Wills swing record for inspiration and swing for the fence, hoping to get that 'soundtrack to your life' vibe. And if it was a slow song, we'd go the other way and really make it worshipful.” IfsWayBigsInspirationSongRecordsBandAlbumsBobSwingsFenceSoundtracksFunkyUpbeat Author:Bart Millard
“I don't really think of these as projects. I think of them as bands. I have tried to not just convene a group of musicians and make one record or make one gig and just drop it. Each of them develop over time. I have been really fortunate to keep a band like the Sextet together over three very different albums. Each time, the goal got more deep for me in terms of how I wanted to write for those people. So it is really about trying to develop ideas and trying to have a consistent focus on a way to come up with new ideas in music that I want to do.” PeopleThinkingWayWantWritingTryingHas BeensIdeasDifferentWantedTogetherThreeGoalTermRecordsFocusGroupsBandProjectsMusicianCome UpAlbumsFortunateConsistentNew IdeasGigs Author:Dave Douglas
“When Adam's House Cat broke up in 1991, which was Cooley and my band for six years, I put my entire life, heart, and soul into that thing. I mean everything. I ended up getting divorced over it, and then the band broke up and I was left with nothing. I had nothing to show for six years of my life except for a finished record that still hasn't come out. And I went through a pretty deep, dark, two-year depression after that, [which] probably resulted in some of the earlier songs that became Drive-By Trucker songs, for that matter.” YearsHeartMeanStillsTwoSoulMatterShowsSongHouseLeftDarkRecordsBandSixCatFinishedBrokeTwo YearsOver ItAdamDivorcedHeart And SoulBroke UpDeep DarkTruckers Author:Patterson Hood
“There's always only been three of us [drummer Joey Shuffield, vocalist, bassist and keyboardist Tony Scalzo and myself], but when we first started we didn't have anybody augmenting the band, so everything had to be kinda to the point anyway. We did that record and toured a while on that, but I just got sick of playing it every night. It felt like doing push-ups to me.” FirstsNightThreeFeltRecordsBandSickEvery NightDrummerVocalistPush UpsJoeyBassists Author:Miles Zuniga
“TALLAHASSEE LASSIE was a record I wrote with my mom. A number of other famous groups have also recorded it such as Led Zeppelin (I understand they are currently touring) and several other English bands and also some various "Punk Bands".” NumbersRecordsGroupsMomBandVariousMy MomPunkTouringZeppelinsLassie Author:Freddy Cannon
“Before I joined Kraftwerk in 1971, I played guitar in a band called Spirits of Sound, whose members included (at times) amongst others singer Wolfgang Riechmann (Sky Records released his only solo album Wunderbar shortly after his death in 1978) and drummer Wolfgang Flür (later on Kraftwerk, now solo). The music of S.o.S. in the mid 60's first was the English pop and rock music of the times (Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones ).” FirstsSpiritSoundRecordsSkyRocksBandMembersStonesGuitarAlbumsPopsSingersRollingSoloDrummerRock MusicRolling StonesKink Author:Michael Rother
“My first big break was with the Ted Fio Rito band. Fio Rito had a bunch of record hits in the 1930s and did a lot of radio work back then. When he came to my home town in early 1942, I sat in with the band. Ted liked me and offered me a job.” FirstsHomeBigsJobsBreakRecordsBandTownsRadioBunchSat1930sHome Town Author:Louie Bellson
“That's the way I came up, writing and recording at home. I developed by playing everything myself. I was a drummer first and that's my favorite instrument to play. Once I get the drums done, everything else comes real quick. Also, we track in my friends' garage, which is really small ... there's not really room to record live with a band.” WayWritingFirstsRealDonePlayHomeRoomsRecordsBandMy FriendsInstrumentsMy FavoriteTrackDrummerGarage Author:Pete Yorn
“We've done every record on our own. Its produced by our guitar player and sometimes we'll have some help mixin' it and have some outside engineers but for the most part, it's done by the band and I think that's the reason why CKY sounds like no other band, 'cause we make our own albums.” ThinkingSometimesReasonDoneHelpingCausesSoundRecordsPlayerBandGuitarAlbumsReason WhyEngineersGuitar Player Author:Jess Margera
“Nowadays, it's a lot more in the kids hands. You don't really need a record label. You can get the money together yourselves. You can just do it through Myspace. There are bands that are huge, without record labels today. Now, I think it's a lot more, in kids hands.” ThinkingNeedsHandsKidsTodayTogetherRecordsHugeBandLabelsJust Do ItRecord Labels Author:Mattew Nicholls
“I think it's stripped down as far as electronics go, but we just wanted to write a record that we felt better represented how we sound live with more of a rock feel, which is the direction we've been heading. It's just an evolution of the band throughout the years. We worked on this record longer than any other record, so I don't know if "stripped down" is how I would put it; I think it is a little bit more raw sounding.” IfsThinkingKnowsFeelsWritingYearsLittlesWantedFeltBitsSoundRecordsRocksEvolutionBandLittle BitHeadingsElectronics Author:Jason C. Miller
“I think I'm just trying to show a more mature side of the band and I think we've really come into the sound of our band. With every album we've grown, but I think this is just a really good picture of where we are right now and how we feel our music represents us. Under the thumb of other record companies we haven't had as much creative control and I think with this record we really did our own thing.” ThinkingFeelsTryingShowsSoundSidesCompanyCreativeRecordsHavensRight NowBandAlbumsMatureThumbsRecord Companies Author:Jason C. Miller
“I'd always wanted to make a record with Jim Dickinson, and I'd known about his boys for years, ... He reminded me that when they were 13 or 14 years old they had a punk rock band and I'd called him and wanted to make a record with them then.” YearsWantedKnownBoysRecordsRocksBandPunkPunk RockRock Bands Author:John Hiatt
“I think the record-buying public know what they like, and when people are trying to pander to them, I think they know it. They want the genuine article, so if we try to sort of "dumb down" for the mass public, I think they're too smart for that, and would recognize us as fakes. It seems like the bands that do crossover do so really on their own terms, and they just find that their terms just kind of make a big dove-tail with the masses.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWantTryingKindBigsSeemsTermRecordsBandMassSmartGenuineDumbFakeBuyingArticlesTailsDoveCrossover Author:Ira Kaplan
“I know what it takes to make a band, how they should interact, what makes a record sound like it's a band - everything having to do with a band, I happen to be into.” KnowsShouldHappensSoundRecordsBand Author:Steven Van Zandt
“Blackheart Records being 25 years old represents staying power and the fact that we weren't able to get a record out through conventional means, so we had to create this record company to put out our records if we wanted to be a band that had records to give out to their fans.” IfsGivingYearsMeanFactsAbleWantedCompanyRecordsFansBandStayingConventionalStay StrongRecord CompaniesStaying Power Author:Joan Jett
“You can think of a number of bands where the first record is by far their biggest record. And that must be hard for people to recapture. Hard for people to live with.” PeopleThinkingFirstsHardNumbersRecordsBand Author:Craig Finn
“I've always been in bands writing songs with friends in order to play shows or record a future record.” WritingPlayShowsSongOrderRecordsBandWriting Songs Author:Frank Iero
“Of course I knew The Band's Canadian keyboard player, the late Richard Manuel, but I didn't play that night because I was there as a guest with my record executives. People ask, "why didn't you play?" If I had known I was going to be playing then I would have been prepared for it.” PeopleIfsHas BeensPlayNightCoursesAsksKnownRecordsPlayerBandLatePreparedExecutivesGuestsKeyboardsKeyboard Players Author:Gordon Lightfoot
“People expect us to be a straight up dance band but there are many more elements to our sound that you really get to see during our live show and hear on our record 'See The Light.'” PeopleShowsLightSoundRecordsBandElementsStraight Up Author:Nomi Ruiz
“The Replacements definitely changed my life, I think they're just amazing. The thing that blew me away [a band like that] is that you'll get into a band from hearing one interesting song and then you'll realise that you've got seven or eight albums to listen to afterwards and every single one of them is a great record. The Replacements definitely changed my life.” ThinkingSongInterestingRecordsChangedBandSevenAlbumsEightHearingRealisingChanged My LifeReplacements Author:Ryan Jarman
“Having solidarity is important and having conviction and sticking with it and also consistency. You can't just have one good record, or a couple of good singles, you have to continue making good music to be considered to be a great band. Having some degree of integrity, that's it in one word.” ImportantRecordsCoupleIntegrityBandDegreesConvictionSolidarityConsistencyOne WordSinglesGood Records Author:Ryan Jarman
“We definitely needed to spend a good solid year just finding ourselves before anyone would even notice us. We had our fan-base growing around here in Los Angeles, but I wouldn't even have wanted anyone to come out to see us that was from a record label or something like that at that time, because we really needed to feel ourselves out as a live band.” FeelsYearsWantedRecordsGrowingFansNeededBandFindingsLabelsLos AngelesRecord Labels Author:Theresa Wayman
“Karl Agell sang for our Blind album which was our second best selling record. He's a great guy and as a matter of fact, before Mike, Woody and I really got going on touring on the old Animosity stuff, Karl & I did about a dozen shows performing the Blind album from start to finish. He's still a good friend of mine and is now in a band called Lead Foot that's more Rock and Roll but they're fantastic, kind of Thin Lizzy or MC5 sounding.” KindStillsMatterFactsShowsGuyStuffRecordsFeetRocksMinesBandBlindAlbumsSellingFantasticPerformingDozenGood FriendRock And RollMikeTouringMatter Of FactWoodyAnimositySecond BestGreat GuyLizzy Author:Reed Mullin
“I certainly didn't predict people who spent years actively disliking the band to all of a sudden like the band. That's pretty funny to me, and it makes playing live kind of interesting, 'cos we're doing lots of things that don't really have a lot to do with that record, and even presenting the songs off that record in a way that's a little more muscular and without as much of the sheen, which is what I think part of what people really liked [about Kaputt].” PeopleThinkingWayYearsKindLittlesSongInterestingRecordsBandPresenting Author:Dan Bejar
“I was a member of the band when it was just, like, a conversation at a bar. Then we constantly practiced, we played shows, we tooled around in the studio. And then, when I moved and kind of bailed on that, is when... So, yeah, for the first, 'Mass Romantic,' I was heavily involved. Then, for a couple records after that, I was not really involved at all.” FirstsKindShowsRecordsCoupleInvolvedBandConversationMembersMassYeahMovedStudiosBars Author:Dan Bejar
“And the next album I do is going to be different because I'm going to change. I already did that thing where I had a band - and I had a great time with a band - but it was almost like pandering to get a record label deal.” DifferentNextDealsRecordsBandAlbumsLabelsGreat TimesRecord LabelsHad A Great Time Author:Laura Bell Bundy
“There are bands, like R.E.M., who want to have 17 records, and some are terrible and some are great. I don't know if people think like that anymore. Things are more atomized now.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWantRecordsTerribleBand Author:Travis Morrison
“There was no indie rock band in the 90s at the level of, like, Grizzly Bear. I listen to their records and it's crazy how good they sound. That really freaks me out.” SoundLevelsRecordsCrazyRocksBearsBandFreakRock BandsGrizzliesIndie RockGrizzly Bears Author:Travis Morrison