Neko Case Quotes

It's funny, when bands or younger musicians ask me: 'So, what does it take to make it?' Well, first explain to me what you mean by 'making it': Do you want to be a rock star or do you want music to be your livelihood?

I just want to make music, I don't want people to talk about me. All I've ever wanted to do was sing. I don't want to be a celebrity. I don't want to be in people's faces, you know, constantly on covers of magazine that I haven't even known I'm on.

Selling records is fantastic. But if you're not loving what you do, and if everybody is throwing knives at you, it can get old very fast.

I'm gonna be honest. I don't care about much. I care about people liking my music. I made it very far without nothing being on radio.

I made a record album in 1960 and it exploded, and I got all these offers for TV.

A lot of people thought my career was over. If you're not releasing records, then something must be wrong. Either the record company doesn't like your music, or you've been dropped. It has to something negative. It's not like you wanted to take a break, or want some balance, or smell the roses.

By the age of 17, for me, we had got an recording contract, and, boom, I was gone.

In this music industry, you'll find the differences with artists. You get some people who really love music... and you get people who do this because they want to have money or want to be famous.

Jimmy Iovine signed me personally to a million-dollar contract, and I lost my identity for a long time. That system is so predicated on making a hit, or you're out of here.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

I was kicked off a record label and didn't get picked up again. It was devastating at first because I thought, 'Oh my God. My career is over. What's gonna happen? What am I going to do?' Once I got that I could have a career, a very good career, without having a hit record, then I changed.

I never dreamt of being a musician for my livelihood. I certainly never would have wanted to be in the business that I'm in, meaning the fame and the glory, the glitter, the rock star, the famous part.

Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.

Now so many really good groups who have had a first major hit can't get a deal for a second one.

This is truly a blessing. Breyon Prescott, Peter Edge and Tom Corson believe in me and have introduced me to a home that also believes and knows exactly what to do with the type of music I'm doing.

I would love to continue working behind the scenes in music - to produce and manage up-and-coming musical talent would be a dream!

I was signed to a record label at the same time as my friend Elliot Murphy, who makes great records to this day.

I think, back in the day, when I was first starting to make music, all I wanted to do was to get a record deal.

I've been through the entire gamut of the music industry - I've been playing in clubs since I was 14, and I've been on Warner Bros, on Sony - I've had lots of successes and some serious times of struggle.

After two years in the songwriting world, I wrote 'All About That Bass.' L.A. Reid heard it and signed me as an artist.

I was signed at 19 years old to a major label, and dropped by the time I was 22.

It was amazing to me that, all of a sudden, I was hearing my music on the radio and coming out of cars.

When you start out without a record nobody knows you, but if you have a record it's a lot easier.

By the time my first solo record came out, I was making a handsome living as a record producer. I had worked with the Band, Janis Joplin and all of these other artists in the Albert Grossman organization. So as my so-called solo career evolved, I never felt pressure that I had to come back and top when I might've done before.

I came to California and got signed at a young age. And it's not like you see in the movies, where you start rubbing shoulders with Timbaland and Pharrell, and you become a giant pop star.