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I grew up on a street called Cedar Wood Road and by coincidence my best friends that are around the age 10 became a guy called Bono and another guy called Guggi. It was music again. The fact that pulled us together. They found me quite interesting because I had the right albums underneath my arm. Those days where you carry the latest David Bowie album or Roxie music album as you go to school. I mean you can't play an album at school but you were being cool just showing, "Look what I got."
Gavin FridayBefore MTV, if you put out an album that sold 50,000 copies, your band could afford not to have day jobs for a while. That meant you could stick around, put out another album or two. Maybe it would be the second or third album where you'd make the statement you'd been trying to make all along.
Mark MothersbaughBack in the day, we sampled Portishead on Nocturnal, that song "Proud" we sampled Portishead. And we used to have the [Dummy] album, 'cause Da Beatminerz put me onto the album. I had the album, every time I played it, I had this dude like, "Yo man." He thought I was so ill 'cause I listened to Portishead. "You're different, man."
Sean PriceMy reaction to Radiohead isn't as simple as jealousy. Jealousy just burns; Radiohead infuriate me. But if it were only that, I wouldn't go back and listen to those records again and again. Listening to Radiohead makes me fell like I'm a Salieri to their Mozart. Yorke's lyrics make me want to give up. I could never in my wildest dreams find something as beautiful as they find for a single song - let alone album after album.
Dave MatthewsYou have to have a plan. Everything has to be planned. For me, I start with the title of my album, before I even start with the songs. I write down different things that I want album to say, and then the songs come from the different words.
Mary J. BligeLive we're a lot louder and noisier on the album. I think for the album we took a lot of time for the songwriting and we wanted to make good pop music, and I think there's plus and minuses to doing pop music and noise.
Andrew VanWyngardenThe Class Clown album was done totally sober. I'd realized what a hell I'd made for myself and I cleaned up completely for three months. You can hear the clarity of my thinking and of my speech on that album.
George CarlinYou could be Top 5 on iTunes, but for people to buy an album, they've got to have a connection with an artist. Every time I bought someone's album, it was about the connection. I was loving everything, from their raps to their style. I wanted to meet them.
Meek MillSo I went out and bought Hard Again by Muddy Waters. That was a big learning curve. I listened to that album again and again and again. James Cotton was the harmonica player on that album.
Sonny TerryWhen I first knew Bob Dylan, he lived in the Village. And for a man who, years after, would disdain publicity or any attempts at interviews, whenever I'd write something about him, he'd be on the street corner saying, `When's it going to run? When's it going to run?' But I must say that album that was - it was the second album he did, and though I've never been a fan of his guitar-playing, he did - I have to admit, he did catch the Zeitgeist of the time.
Nat HentoffI don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.
Lou Reed[Music From the Edge of Heaven] wasn't really an album at all. The band had made the decision to release an LP and then split up. We wanted to go out with a bang in Britain and the rest of the world by having a single that was four songs, not just one song. But we couldn't do that over here because we couldn't release a single without an album.
George MichaelThere were a lot of songs that I still wanted to put on the album but it worked out. I can only fit 18 [tracks] on the album, I would put 30 if I could.
Young Jeezy'Captain Fantastic' was the first album in history to enter the (American) album chart at number one. We did it for a second time after that. Now that's not a boast, that's frightening.
Bernie TaupinI think when you write every song on your album - it's like having eleven or twelve children. It's hard to say I like this one song more or I like that one more. I love every song on the album. What's happening is that I'm hoping that everyone will be very satisfied. I think the single "Good Girl" will be adored by the people in the urban world and I think the "Best of Me" will be loved by people in the pop world.
Chrisette MicheleBack in the day, fans wrote letters to groups - you'd get them, although it could take a while. Now, artists can go online and there's discussions about what you should and shouldn't be doing. The minute you announce that you're recording an album, thousands of people are telling you what that album should be.
Geddy LeeMy first album was called Seven Waves, and was directly inspired by the ocean, and the ocean has been a leitmotif in my music. Nature was my inspiration even in NYC, because I needed that balance - I would travel out to nature. I loved the big city, I loved the energy, but I needed the balance.
Suzanne CianiI invested in the album. Look, if I never did anything again in music, it wouldnโt affect my life materially. I live a very satisfying life. Not because Iโve made a few dollars, but because I have a wife who loves me and children who wait for me to come home. And that is beautiful. I think thatโs the American dream: to be at peace at home.
RZAIn art school, I started to see Pettibon in magazines, and I figured it out backward. I was into the idea that someone could show work in galleries while making album covers and photocopied books.
Michael DumontierI am trying to change hip-hop music because I do feel there are places people can go with production and the structure of an album that they haven't gone yet. But, like I said, I don't have any delusions of grandeur. I just want to make music that doesn't make me bored.
El-PI never stopped writing music, I just stopped writing songs. I've been writing music continually ever since the last album of original tunes, "River Of Dreams" in '93.
Billy JoelIt would be really nice to be able to put out releases that wouldn't be conditional upon an album format, and just put out music in different ways.
Colin GreenwoodSometimes when you record an album in the end, there are things here and there you regret production wise or in composition.
NeigeI'll probably do a lot of acting first, then go to singing. but I am going to definitely sing someday. So when I do start singing, buy my album!
Jamie Lynn SpearsI grew up in a very musical household. My brother had KISS and Van Halen records, but my parents loved country and show tunes, so I had all of those records when a kid. I pretty much knew exactly what I was going to do at a young age. I loved album covers, I loved listening to a record and staring at the art while listening to it. When I got older and discovered paining, drawing and PhotoShop, I was able to do both simultaneously; I enjoy making both.
Piggy D.I think pop culture is the greatest subject matter out there - 'Other People's Lives,' as we wrote about on the last Duran Duran album. Most ideas for great songs come from real situations, something your friend said to you the night before, the girl that just left, or something traumatic in your life.
Nick RhodesI'm always sort of reflecting on what I do on what I've done. Usually before I make a new album, I'll listen to the previous albums just to see where I've been.
Lenny KravitzA sister is the cure for swollen heads and ego trips. One may a star, a Chief Executive-famous and rich and beautiful. But one's sister has the family photo album. And a long, long memory. And a tendency to wink at one on Top Occasions.
Pam BrownSome kid can say, "Hey, I really want you to play my town in Switzerland, or Sweden, or Latvia," and they could have a fun night at the show. On the other hand, all those kids could have a record that means something to them in a more personal way a couple months down the road. The live band is a really important thing for us, but my focus is on the album now.
Zachary Cole SmithI was writing before I met Rick and actually I created the band before Rick Finch. Basically, the first album, I wrote. Who's to say what would've happened? Rick was very talented too.
Harry Wayne CaseyOf course I am stressed after I finish working on an album about what an audience will think, if it will be successful or not.
Rokia TraoreThe danger of these collaborations across disciplines is in having too strict of a division of labor - in my case, of getting stuck doing the music. When I make an album, I write music, I write lyrics, I come up with the visual design, etc. I get to do all of that stuff.
David GrubbsI play drums and guitar. My best instrument is definitely drums, so I'm featured a lot on the album drumming. It's pretty futuristic as well.
Justin BieberI love it. It's the most legitimate way to acquire and sustain an audience of people who are interested in your music. Touring allows me to play material that isn't on the album and that they wouldn't be able to hear otherwise.
Gavin DeGrawIt is a great pleasure to be performing with a big band. Those people took part in a group that played the music from the Kino Kultura album i.e. the soundtrack music I've been doing. It is difficult to organise them all and to have those people for a certain date since they all have their own obligations and arrangements. It is a great privilege to gather all those musicians at one place, especially these that I work with, since they perform regularly abroad, at weddings or are working somewhere else.
Vlatko StefanovskiBut for the most part, for the majority of a stand-up audience, you better have new stuff they've not heard. And if you put an album out, just consider that material gone. At least that's how I see it.
Patton OswaltWhen I'm writing my album, it's totally my world. Even though it's myself and another producer creating the project, Conceptually it's more under my power and on my own terms. At the same time, it's a different type of pressure because I'm ultimately speaking, I'm solely responsible for the end result.
AshantiI tried to take some of the same records that were important to me on my album Full Speed that my fans really vibed with content-wise and just made sure that the production and actual sound was put together differently and wasn't rushed as much.
Kid InkA traveler amid the scenery of the Alps, surrounded by the sublimest demonstration of God's power, had the hardihood to write against his name, in an album kept for visitors, "An atheist." Another who followed, shocked and indignant at the inscription, wrote beneath it, If an atheist, a fool; if not, a liar!
George Barrell CheeverThere's very notable dynamics in all of the collaborations I've done. It's hard to say if one is more important than the other, but if I had to think of all situations and point to one band that I enjoyed most it would be when I was eight years old. I had a band with my little sister and the kid across the street. We sat around all day playing music and it was bliss. I didn't have any expectations or do it for anyone or worry about selling an album. That was really my favorite band. We were called Hot Chocolate.
Steve VaiIf you've ever seen album covers for Arab female pop stars, it looks like the designer was paid five dollars to make them, and the extreme femaleness is astounding.
AyshayThe happening and telling are very different things. This doesnโt mean that the story isnโt true, only that I honestly donโt know anymore if I really remember it or only remember how to tell it. Language does this to our memories, simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An off-told story is like a photograph in a family album. Eventually it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.
Karen Joy Fowler