Solomon Burke Quotes

You don't need a record company to turn you into anything.

I made this record without a record label.

I wanted to go back to writing for myself and my fans. I built my own recording studio, started my own label, and decided to use the Internet to sell my records.

Basically we just created our own label, but again we just did it to document our own music and create our own thing, so the major labels were just always out of our picture, we're not interested.

I was an artist, I was executive producer on my first album, so I've always had to manage both. I couldn't get a record deal. It wasn't by choice - I couldn't get a record deal, so I had to figure it out.

I always thought that if record companies didn't understand me, fine - I'd go and do it by myself.

I never solicited a major label and I certainly wouldn't now.

I started my own record label.

I'm pushing ahead on my own - you no longer need a large record company to make you a star.

Putting out my album on my own label has been a great experience for me. It's been very inspiring. It's like a new start for me and having all this creative freedom is so liberating and exciting.

Because I'm not in a record deal, I don't have to operate in an album format.

It's great to be able to find a way to release your music and do what you want to do artistically and not have to just worry about being accepted by the major label industry.

I think what I've learned to focus on is my music, and that's why I made my record independently.

I don't have to worry about what the average record company person thinks because I am the record company person.

If I could have stayed independent from the jump, then, maybe, things would have been different. 'Return of 4Eva' would have been an album instead of a mixtape.

Starting my own label was more out of necessity. I'm not going to sit around and wait for labels to come screaming.

I publish my own music. I'm creating my own songbook. It works that way for me; I'm very independent.

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.

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.

I have recorded nine tracks for a new album which I financed myself and am looking for a home for.

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.

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.

I don't want a record company, but I need one, unfortunately.

I took the process of doing as much myself as I could like a duck to water. I set up my own label and publishing, etc, and it was a fun learning curve two decades ago.

With the new ways of getting music out, you don't need a label if you're a legacy artist.