Schoolboy Q Quotes

Bands that say they don't care about how their records sell are liars.

The potential success that could come with signing with a major label didn't quite outweigh how important it was for me to make my music the way I knew it needed to be made.

My real life helped me sell a lot of records.

You don't need a record deal. You'll have the industry begging for you, when you build your buzz.

I think these days, as an artist, you have to be slightly entrepreneurial. ...Nobody really sells records anymore.

The record business has always mystified me. Sometimes there are reasons why things sell or don't sell that can't be understood by mere mortals.

Well, a lot of our concerts do okay, and I know we still get royalty checks which still isn't that important, but again, I have to just say that we're making our records.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

I actually don't think that I'm gonna sell a lot of records.

People get passionate about a song. It's been my experience if you put out radio candy, something commercial, it doesn't sell records.

MTV made a huge impact. Heavy rotation took you from selling 1m albums to 20m albums, and that meant a lot of dough.

It doesn't matter how good you are as a band or how good your music may be; if the fans aren't supporting it and buying your music, it's hard to make it.

If there is a good musical reason, I think it might draw more attention and sell, though it is not guaranteed. To make a record without a musical reason, you have to either be a pop star who sells automatically or just be lucky.

I have these songs that I've been playing for so many years. They're so intimate and close to me. And these are songs that probably a major label would not be interested in - some of them, anyway - interested in putting on a record.

Musically, I wear many hats. I'm the social media director. I conceptualise the videos, write the songs, do the press. I'm not a major label act.

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

It's been awesome going indie. I don't need to be on a major label. I love not having to walk into a specific radio person's office to try to convince someone to play my songs. At the end of the day, it's more work, but I've discovered that I like to get my hands dirty.

I want to make more fans, sell records.

Record companies tell me to play something more commercial, but I don't want to do anything else.

A lot of labels always feel the need to tell you how they think the music should be marketed and what songs work best where. I say make music you love doing, come up with a strategy, and put it out there.

Actually, it's the beauty of independent music that the artist can feature in his own videos and be the face of it. It is unlike Bollywood movies, where one does playback singing.

People talk about the pop part - they don't talk about me being an independent artist. I made it look easy, that's the problem!

I'm building my own brand outside of the Peas. It's not Black Eyed Peas, it's Zumbao. Zumbao is different from the Peas because it's all on me and I can't feed off of anybody other than me.

I want to be role model for people to be like, 'I don't need a major label to be a successful artist and to have a successful song.'

Anything can wait for a hit record. That, after all, is what everyone wants at the end of the day.