Steven Curtis Chapman Quotes

I'd say, if you want to be an artist, start with your art; start with making great music and it will, hopefully, eventually cut through all of the nonsense that is out there.

The advice I have for new artists is this - write great songs and play them live as often as possible. Get residencies all over town and crush it.

We've been conditioned to understand music as a field where you get discovered, and you're always trying to find that end. So 'my shot' is speaking of a variety of shots. When you're a rapper, you look at every shot as the one you're supposed to take.

As a new artist - I don't care who you talk to - I think everyone would agree, it's hard to get your expectations right.

The record company started as an adjunct to that, to give young composers their first recorded performances; to give young musicians their first debut on a recording. These are all things that big record companies would never touch because there is no money in it!

I've never been able to understand where great artists come from.

People don't really have a relationship with great writing or great production or great art direction or great direction. They just sort of admire it.

The purity of finding the right artist, that artist that's gonna be the next hall of famer, that artist that's gonna be the next headliner, lifting people out of their seats at Madison Square Garden, that song that's gonna be sung for hundreds and hundreds of years, that essence remains the same.

I chose to deal with the underdogs on '1 Train.' I could've got the biggest superstars in the rap game, but why do that when you can let the young boys shine?

Art isn't held with the same high regard as it is after success. In any country, in any language, you're a loser if you're making music until you prove otherwise.

We are going back to our roots by cultivating new unsigned talent who otherwise might go unnoticed.

I never gave up on that idea, you know, that jazz musicians have the same opportunity as everybody else and that it's what you put on that record that makes the difference whether you sell it or not or are able to get it into people's households.

It's great, I guess, when your paintings are hanging up in a museum.

As a new artist, you come out, and there are so many other new artists. It seems like there's a whole wave of new artists that come along every year. In '05, I was part of the crop. It was a lot harder trying to set myself apart from the rest of the pack.

I would love to have a song that I wrote by myself to win a 'Song of the Year' award.

Even primitive areas can produce a superstar.

I was offered seven deals from seven different major labels between 2009-2011, and to be quite honest... nowadays, you need a hit record, a great radio team, an amazing PR firm, social media, a big budget, a team that is ready to work extremely hard, and the drive and passion to win!

I've been blessed because there are a lot of great singers out there that didn't make it past their first album.

I always thought it was strange when these artists like Kurt Cobain or whoever would get really famous and say, 'I don't understand why this is happening to me.' There is a mathematical formula to why you got famous. It isn't some magical thing that just started happening.

It's a bummer sometimes but I always believe that great bands and great music always prevail.

I come from a place, with all due respect, who's never had a music star in hip-hop. So the odds is already against me.

It's about finding great artists and being part of their careers.

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky.

A lot of people don't do this. You can count on a couple of hands probably how many artists also produce and write, both for themselves and for others, and are able to be successful at both things.

I know how it feels to be a singer who wants to get discovered.