Otis Rush Quotes

With the Rhythm Kings, I can involve myself in arranging and producing the music as well as the choice of songs.

I got a couple on per album but my problem was that I wanted to sing the songs and not let Roger sing them.

When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there.

Songs are not on a conveyor belt. I'm not chopping them up and putting them out.

Because I write the music, I write the lyrics, I write the vocal melody lines - I write everything. Just because I let somebody sing something doesn't mean they're more important than the bass player or the keyboard player or the drummer.

I write the music, produce it and the band plays within the parameters that I set.

There was no such thing as production at Starday. We'd go in with the band, we'd go over the song, I'd look over and tell the steel player to take a break or kick it off, and I'd get the fiddle to play a turnaround in the middle.

So I didn't have anything to do with picking the songs, but I got to musically take them in places I thought might be interesting, so it was a real neat collaboration among the three of us.

Puffy produced four of the tracks on the album. Those are the four songs that are collaborations between Puffy and me. And he gives me my space to work even when we work together, like with my producer and my vocal coach.

Growing up as a singer, and a cast member, and now as an adult, a songwriter, I get the luxury of choosing the kinds of songs that I want to sing, because I'll write, you know, hundreds of songs. Even though only 12 appear on the album. That's 12 that I've chosen to sing of my catalog.

I write music. I'm in a band.

With the 'iCarly' soundtrack, I didn't get to write any of the songs. I just picked songs that meant a lot to me that I really liked.

With Dream Theater, every creative aspect of the group went through me. I oversaw it all from top to bottom.

I've never gone to a singer with a song and said 'why don't you try this?' or tried to get a record like that. My head just wasn't there.

I always think that you should never, ever force a producer to do something with a song that they don't think they can do something fantastic with, I think it's a stupid idea to force it, even if you think it's your best song.

I think it's down to our songs - we've always made sure every song on every album works.

I've always been hands on with my music and my movement.

On my first album nobody asked me for a lot of advice. It was a producer's album. We were sent the same type songs with stock melodies. It was my first album and I was happy to do about anything they'd ask me.

We kind of established in Sons of Apollo right from the get go that it would be a very collaborative process musically, but after that, I was going to take the reins and control everything else beyond that the way I did with Dream Theater.

When I did my solo album, I put on a song that I'd planned for Toto that never made an album constructed from a great drum track with Jeff and a bass track with Mike and the guys loved it.

If you got a vibe with a producer I think you should go full-fledged instead of being satisfied with two songs.

It's easier to collaborate with instrumentalists than singers; they know exactly the sound that I need.

Producing isn't just making beats on a beat machine. It's bringing together these string players with this flute player and this singer, and telling them to all work in the key of C major... You bring these people together and let them all cook.

I'm writing songs that I want to sing.

We'd love to collaborate with Sam Smith. I've told him. Many times. We've got loads of songs we've written that we can literally just hear his voice on.