Jimmy Iovine Quotes

To me, Def Jam put my career on hold. I was used to making 13-14 songs a year, and they trickled that down to nothing.

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.

So it was out of necessity that Blackheart was born. I think it's great that now, 25 years later, we're not only putting out our own music, but are able to put out music by other bands. That's really exciting for us.

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 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.

It became a question of do I want to be on a label where it could take three years to put out a record instead of putting out three records over the same period of time on my own.

There's the famous thing that the A&R man from the record company is supposed to do: He's supposed to come into the studio and listen to the songs you've been recording and then say, 'Guys, I don't hear any singles.' And then everybody falls into a terrible depression because you have to write one.

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.

When you get to a point where you're not beholden to a record company, then it's up to you to say, 'OK, enough knob-turning. We're done.'

Bob Hurwitz, the president of Nonesuch, the company that releases my records, is a mentor. He taught me how to assemble a script to record an album.

We spend more time on the road and when we cut an album, it'll take us as long as six months.

Leaving Interscope was not a personal thing. These record companies are a certain kind of machine, and we weren't able to function in it.

The record companies don't give you a chance, like in the old days when they went, 'Here's a pile of money. Go make a good record!'

We got very lucky, and we were really honored with how amazing our family is now at Hollywood Records... They believed in us, and they let us make the record we definitely wanted to make. And they let us be the Jonas Brothers.

Interscope is run more like a rock band than a record company. It's run in a very spontaneous, heartfelt way.

I'm not just going to get a deal; I'm going to get the deal. And in my deal I got by signing with No I.D. to Def Jam, I got full creative control, the money was great, the contract was good, and I got to create the album that I wanted.

When me and Eric did songs back in the day, we didn't go and sit down in front of no A&R. We made our album, and then, when we finished, we handed it in, and then we picked the best song for the first single.

Like everything at Big Machine Label Group, the music comes out when it's ready.

Someone told me once that Lucinda Williams takes six years between albums, and that's what stuck to me; it's like, you really are a factory. You don't do things to make them, on your own time.

I'm really lucky that my record companies have been patient with me and leave me alone and give me the time to make it right in my mind.

I think that's what most of us rappers do too often. We put too much information in some of our albums that could actually be on the next ones.

If you're part of a record company, you're a manufactured product. It doesn't mean that you're not talented.

It's not like it used to be where everybody has a record company to belong to.

When the label came to me to say, 'would you like to do another record,' I said, 'Well I got these sixteen songs sitting here, so let's do it.' And that was pretty much it... I never stopped writing, it's just the way that the business is now; you just try to find a different model.

The reason I never wanted to sign with a big label was because I didn't want no one telling me how to make my music.