Marvin Gaye Quotes

I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

Being a pop-leaning, female artist, you'd think that I'd have my record company breathing down my neck and trying to control everything I'm doing. Actually, they've just kind of let me take the wheel.

I've had offers to sign a record deal, but the people I've talked to have wanted to package me and have me meet with songwriters who've written stuff for Whitney Houston, that sort of thing. That's not at all my style.

It was a lot easier to write songs before I had a record deal, because the record labels and the industry doesn't mean to put pressure on you, but they do. They don't realize that they are, but you end up having a pressure there that you feel. At times I feel myself wanting to say, 'Just let me do what I do.'

When you get to a point where you're not beholden to a record company, then it's up to you to say, 'OK, enough knob-turning. We're done.'

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

I suddenly realized that in order to do what I wanted to do, I had to become that which I hated - which is the head of a record company or a digital media conglomerate - and just do whatever you want.

I have just enough people paying attention that I have the freedom to be in charge. And I have a great record company - Nonesuch understands what I'm about.

A lot of big whoever producers, they come with a song and they say, 'Sing this,' and I'm not that girl.

I'm fortunate that I've been in this business long enough that I've earned the right to be left alone by my record company.

My responsibility is to the artist first. There's something that artists intrinsically know about their music and their fanbase that neither the record company nor the producer really knows.

In general, I don't feel artists should need producers.

I had to beg to get out of my contract with Capitol. They wanted me to work with big producers. I wanted to produce my music, and they weren't having that. I'm sure they were happy to let me go. I just didn't want to do what they wanted me to do.

I was never your average artist, happy to do whatever the record company told me.

When you are signed to a major label, everyone wants to have a say in who you are and what you are doing.

You can be more creative when you're not feeling like a slave. When you're on a record label, they have you like that.

The record label used to try and make us do stuff, like dance, and we'd say, nah, not doing that.

You might be like, 'I want really big hits.' But when you get really big hits, and your label is making $150 million, they are people who are now interested in what you do. They are going to begin to tell you what to do, and so you become important. So your creative freedom - you're not going to have that again.

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

Do not let any record company disturb your creative flow. You are not writing for the record company. You're writing for the public.

The reason I never wanted to sign with a big label was because I didn't want no one telling me how to make my music.

We've managed to have a long career that is still quite vibrant, yet we've never had to kow-tow to record companies who said we weren't commercial enough.

That's my favorite subject because it really levels the playing field for artists these days. You don't have to sell out to the record company. You don't have to get a five hundred thousand dollars, or whatever, and pay them back for the rest of your life to record a record.

When you're on the pop treadmill, you don't always feel that cool because you have to do things to promote the record that aren't necessarily your environment.