James Arthur Quotes

Who decides what is and what isn't punk? I want to write songs that people hear and feel, and I want to be successful and reach a big audience. I'm not trying to be the coolest guy in the world; I'm trying to write songs that mean something to people. As you get successful, sometimes you lose one set of fans and gain another.

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.

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

If I would get an album out every eight months and if I would write songs that were more up-tempo and try to focus more on making singles, then I could probably get more attention. But I don't think the albums would be very fun to listen to, and it would be a drag for me.

All through the kind of late '80s and '90s, every A&R record company man was saying, 'Now what we want is another record like 'Back in the High Life.' And, of course, that's not the way to make music at all. That's the tail wagging the dog.

You want to sell records, but if you want to call yourself an artist, your job is how you express yourself.

We don't go around the world counting ticket and record sales, nor do we glue our ears to the radio to hear what's trendy at the moment - we're not that type of band.

Obviously Hall & Oates wasn't overlooked by the masses in terms of the record sales.

The choices for me now are completely creative. I know, when I'm going to make a record, it ain't going to sell.

I was working with Bill Graham management at the time and it was obvious to everyone concerned that albums like Open Fire, while they were good for me creatively, were not going to be commercially successful.

I'm just not interested in selling out to get on the charts and make people happy.

I know that when I make a record like The Delivery Man as a contrast to even Il Sogno, this is going to reach a wider audience, because it communicates in that very direct way.

Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.

If it's a good song and it fits me, that's what I'm going to do, I'm not out there trying to change the world. I'm just out there trying to sing country music the best way I can.

Writing a song to be a single is hard, and I don't like to focus on that because you can get caught up in making something just terrible, which is really easy to do if you're focused on making it a single. It's more fun when you focus on what excites you musically.

And frankly, when I made that record, hit songs were not what I was trying to achieve.

To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing.

Despite whatever commercial kind of success you might have or radio success, I don't want to do something just to get as many people as possible to listen.

I don't make records that way, where I'm trying to please the marketplace or anything. Not because I have anything against that, it's just never been a part of my aesthetic, even when I was with the Pixies.

When I do an album I try to find a producer that's excited about something that they want me to sing, and I check with the record company to find out what they think they can sell - which is their No. 1 priority.

I don't like working with hitmakers. I don't want hits! You're not even allowed to say that word around me.

There's this misconception in the industry that you might have to go a little lighter or skate on the surface in order to reach people - and then in your second album, you get to tell who you are.

On YouTube, when you have a big viral success with a song that isn't your own, the natural inclination for most YouTubers is to keep doing that. What you really should do is show people that you actually have substance and can write your own music.

We went into that knowing that we were never going to sell a major record 'cause we didn't sound like these bands, so I just thought this was an opportunity for us to make the kind of records that we wanted and make some money at the same time.

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