Brian McKnight Quotes

Live records of mine are very painful to listen to because you always think you can do it better. I don't think I have a single favorite one.

The thrill of hearing your own voice recorded is still there, I still love it, going into the studio and thinking how can I sing this song and between the producers and the musicians you find a way of doing it.

I never, my producer never, we never let myself just sing. We were always trying to get the perfect vocal.

It's true, most of my days are spent alone in a dark room! I don't really want anyone to see me trying and failing to nail the 40th take of a simple piano cue.

Most of those takes were one take. I made those records in three minutes. I didn't have time to get nervous or scared the first time I sang it. It was all 'live' and I enjoyed it so much.

As a band, we always took a really long time to make records, so unfortunately, we got into that habit of, like, 'We'll work on it tomorrow.'

A lot of my vocals were the first time I ever sang the song.

The music comes first. Final lyrics are usually written very close to recording the vocals.

I sing all the time but I'd never gotten what it felt like to be in the recording studio, so it was definitely a learning process.

What I learned very quickly is that if you get it right in the first two or three takes, it's not going to get that much better.

I started singing by default, I think. Because there was a guy in the group that thought the group wasn't going to ever be anything. And I was getting ready to record, and I'd never recorded my voice. It was always other people that I featured because I thought they did a much better job.

U2 albums never get finished. They just get released.

I told them if were going to do it were going to do it right, I'm not leaving 'til it's done. My wife, child and I slept in the studio. We cut these raw.

Acting is great. You spend your whole life trying to get it right.

'Chandelier' took, like, four minutes to write the chords, then, like, 12-15 minutes to write the lyrics. Probably 10 or 15 minutes to cut the vocals.

If you're working with a producer like Rick Rubin or whatever, you sing each line probably 30 different ways. Each time, they're like, 'Can you try it this way? Can you try it that way?' That's each line in the song, for each song.

It don't matter who I'm working with. I just feel like I want to make the best record possible.

When I first got signed, I used to literally pick up a pen and pad. Write bars in my notes, even whole songs. Nowadays, I just go off the feeling.

Auto-tune is good to keep your notes intact, but it doesn't do much for the feel of your voice.

I really don't chase songs. I get in the studio, I know what I gotta do; I'm pretty much programmed to do it.

There was a recording studio in my school, and I knew this kid who had a key, so I'd write lyrics in school while I was in class, and then, in a 10-minute break, I recorded the song 'Hurt' in one go at the school studio.

My practice is to take a sheet, write the song number in the left side, name of the production, and time of recording. Only when I have to fill the name of the singer do we look out to see who is free. When the singers we want aren't there, I end up singing it! That's how I became a singer.

Making a record is an intimate experience. A good producer can get things out of you that you can't get out of yourself.

It's like... to make a good record - I don't care who you are - it takes a long time and a lot of passion and a lot of attention to detail, right?

Usually, if I hear songs, I record it on a Voice Memo first. I have to perfect it. I'm a big fan of delivery, and I want to make sure you're saying it right. I'm like, 'This has to be perfect when I do this.'