Leo Kottke Quotes

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.

Every time I release an album my old record company releases another one.

I have absorbed my life now. I am ready for my music to unfold. I know time flies, but before the end of this year, the album will be out. Even if it kills me.

I was very disenchanted in the industry for a long time before I met GaGa. Everyone wanted a 'Single Ladies' for their artist, or a Puffy move.

In the '70s, you had to come up with an album every year whether you were ready or not.

That's usually what happens with AC/DC: you make an album, and then you're on the road flat out. And the only time you ever get near a studio is generally after you've done a year of touring.

Obviously I try to make the best music that I can, but after about two years of making an album, you start to worry: 'Is it going to come out all right? Is it all going to sound churned out?'

Shoot, there's a committee to tell you everything at a record label. You definitely have to know who you are if you want to look like you at the end of the process. We've all seen people get record contracts, and by the time they're spit out by the machine, we don't even recognize them.

Every time I do an album, I say, 'That's the last one.'

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.

You want to put out a record that you feel is exactly as you want it. Nobody wants to tour for two years on a record they don't like.

We had a nightmare on our first album, and went through two producers. I decided, on the second album, to take the money that we were supposed to use for pre-production, and we went into a studio and cut the album with no producer. We finished the whole thing without telling the record company.

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.

I don't want to release a CD; I want to release the real deal, so we're just gonna take our time.

People don't realize I make records eight or nine months before they come out. I'm directing the videos; I have a lot of work to do. I'm very involved in all that stuff creatively.

I remember when we were mixing our record and our manager was in there going, 'You guys need to sing more, so it can be on the radio.' And we were like 'What? We're never going to get played on the radio. Who cares? What are you talking about?'

When you record an album in six days, you don't have time to work out a lot of stuff.

You might be like, 'I want really big hits.' But when you get really big hits, and your label is making $150 million, they are people who are now interested in what you do. They are going to begin to tell you what to do, and so you become important. So your creative freedom - you're not going to have that again.

I never got the chance to put drums on 'Watersigns,' because the company was in a rush to release it - and me.

If I could have stayed independent from the jump, then, maybe, things would have been different. 'Return of 4Eva' would have been an album instead of a mixtape.

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.

You can have a favorite band, but when they sign with a major label... maybe a new producer says, 'You can't do that, take this down a notch.' And you'll keep listening, but you'll always think their first album was their best album.

I'm only at home for, like, a month when I'm doing an album - at the most.

There's no rush to ever put out a new Cheap Trick record. We put it out when we feel like it.