Kenny Beats Quotes

I didn't want to be on a major label. I wanted all the attention and the noise to go away because I wanted to be something a little bit more substantial.

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.

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

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.

I've never worried about how a new release will be received. I simply try to do the best I can and leave the rest to the gods. The music industry in those terms is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine.

We try and stay out of the corporate side of it. The band has never compromised. At some point in our career we could have made a certain type of record and sold millions of units, as they are called.

You make music to change the radio, not make music for the radio.

I enjoy selling my music. I don't enjoy selling myself.

Shoot, there's a committee to tell you everything at a record label. You definitely have to know who you are if you want to look like you at the end of the process. We've all seen people get record contracts, and by the time they're spit out by the machine, we don't even recognize them.

I like Modest Mouse. I'm our biggest fan. And enemy. I won't waste people's time by putting out a Modest Mouse record just because. That's fair, right?

A lot of very popular mainstream artists are products of record companies and marketing companies, and any time anyone can stand outside of that, that's interesting.

In my music career, I never was interested in working and writing and creating songs based on what kind of rewards I could receive in return - a hit song, per se, is what most contemporary artists have to deal with when they deal with a label.

Instead of giving all your best tracks to artists, producers now have the opportunity where we can take our favorite beats we make and put our favorite artists on them and release fun songs for people to listen to.

I don't want to release a CD; I want to release the real deal, so we're just gonna take our time.

Record labels and producers are not looking to change you: they are looking to make a star. And what they might think is a star may not be you.

I'm not trying to rub shoulders with any record executives. If rubbing shoulders in the industry is what I wanted to do then I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

I'm a real guy. I'm not money-laundering. I make money off music, and music is my source of income. It feels good. I'm not selling T-shirts, I'm not doing none of that other crap. Straight music.

I actually did a remix for Katy Perry, and her management didn't respond.

The moment artists can just do what they love to do then music will go right back to where it used to be. I mean back in the '60s and '70s and '80s, that's what it was.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

When no one's buying your records, it's easy to justify selling a song. But once you start selling records, you can't really justify having two songs in Cadillac commercials. It looks greedy. And it is greedy. This whole music thing should be about music.

I left the entertainment industry part of my life behind in 1983, when we decided not to work with major record companies anymore.

I've recorded 25 or 30 albums. I know that sometimes when you work with producers who are kinda dictators, it doesn't help you make a better record.

There's this idea of a star, and this person is very aloof and writes all the music, and they don't talk to anyone unless they go through the record label. And I always felt very uncomfortable about that.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.