Fred Schneider Quotes

With the first album, we felt people didn't really understand our band.

Veer Zaara' changed people's outlook towards me. It was my first so-called commercial film.

The artists in country music who stopped having hits are the ones who were led into something that wasn't them.

Generally, you are held to a sound and that becomes your sound. That gets branded as your sound, and all the copycats start with it because the labels are looking for that sound.

We've always had our hardcore fans. But the general public has a love-hate thing about the 'Kinks.' It always leaves people with a question mark on their heads.

They'll see it. And it doesn't matter if they don't. It's only Rock 'n' Roll. But I do intend to move more into the Mainstream. Marilyn Manson is just the First phase.

Selling millions of albums is a sign you've infiltrated the culture.

Hey, I didn't make a big deal out of Hotel California. The 18 million people that bought it did.

Even the bands I dig don't have a history of attaining mass consumption.

I think you have a crossover when you are known to a wider audience and a different market. I've been able to sell out stadiums all over the world by doing my music. I'm lucky to be in that list without having done an official crossover. Now, will you hear me doing a little bit of R&B? Sure.

I had a couple of years in the mid-2000s where it was really confusing to me. I was like, 'Why is our band sometimes a punch line?'

I guess because we're essentially a two-man band, we're attracting Wham's crowd. But Wham! are more of a businessman's band.

I think that's one of the beautiful things about this genre is that everyone who's in it isn't in it to make a million bucks and be popular, because that's not always our M.O. Really, I think the last time that rock was truly in the mainstream was probably a point in time in the '90s when there was a lot of alternative that was on the pop charts.

Headliners, no matter the genre, usually are a person or band who has an ethos.

People say I'm destroying hip-hop, and I'm like, there's so much hip-hop, and it's so popular, so I don't know why I have the power to destroy it.

We never said we were hard-core or that we didn't want our music crossing over or being popular.

I joke that I've never been burdened by having an actual hit. There's something to that. My records have sold enough to make the record company money to help me keep my job. But I've never had anything so firmly ingrained in the mind of the public that I'm expected to repeat it.

I'm one of those controversial celebs or whatever you want to call it, but I am actually a musician - people forget this.

The industry doesn't usually say nice things about my work. My films take a while till they are accepted as good and I think 'Yennai Arindhaal' too will go through that phase.

How the audience as a collectivity feels about a movie is important.

Let's face it - negativity sells records.

I want my music to be really big. I have no interest in DIY Brooklyn; I don't want to be a small indie band.

I guess after the whole success with 'Lean On' - me being introduced into this more mainstream audience - I was a little scared of being my true self, and being vulnerable and being gritty.

Hey, I've done a lot of other things, but I'm also very aware that when I kick the bucket, the first paragraph will be, 'The man responsible for 'Frampton Comes Alive!' just dropped dead. Frampton Drops Dead! after coming alive all these years.'

I remember people telling me that at 5 1/2 minutes long, 'Lightning Crashes' would never be a hit song.