Charli XCX Quotes

I was never your average artist, happy to do whatever the record company told me.

Everybody told me that if I insisted on doing rockabilly music, I'd never have a chance of selling any records. In fact, I lost count of how many people told me to ditch it all together, in favour, I guess, of sounding like everybody else.

I don't like people telling me what to do, or trying to MAKE me write songs.

I didn't want to be on a major label. I wanted all the attention and the noise to go away because I wanted to be something a little bit more substantial.

Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.

Somebody once told me I shouldn't try to change Hollywood. That isn't my point at all. I don't want Hollywood to change me.

Stand up for yourself and fight for your right to be the artist that you want to be. There's plenty of pressure from outside; people tell you how to dress and how to sing or what to sing, but I always felt like if I'm going to fail or succeed, I want to do it on my own terms.

Prince was one of the best people I've met. He didn't care about the big system. I was always like, at any time, Prince could write a No. 1 song because he's that talented, but he chooses to do what he wants. I respect that. He actually helped me through a lot of situations with his knowledge.

I make pop music, but I do it on my own terms. I'll never play the game, so to speak, just for success. I'll always follow my heart and make the music I want to make.

I couldn't be an artist who was told what to do, what to be, what to sing.

The success of the first album was almost an anomaly, and it could remain a fantastic anomaly. It was not crafted for commercial success. I remember meetings with my label saying it had no radio singles. For me, the second album was a gesture of independence.

So, as I step out and take these first steps on this journey to do my own thing, I didn't want to have to get anybody's approval on anything. I didn't want to have to ask a record label 'Is this okay for the album cover? What time do you think I should go on tour this year?'

I’m not going to start churning out what you expect. If you want me to be a manufactured act, you can f*** off.

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

We have access to more resources in general, and they are not going to force a situation on us, whether its the producer, or the cover, or what songs we have to play. And it's a small enough company that it seems like the people there care about music and not just about business.

Metallica lives in a little bubble. We just do our own thing. We're not part of any trends or waves or fads. We can just do our own thing, all the time. It's a great luxury. I don't think we were really appreciative of it until recently, and really understood that it is what keeps us alive. It's great to be able to have the freedom to run around and do all this crazy stuff, and at all cost, avoid making another record, just to piss our managers off.

I'm certainly not who people think I am. I always do whatever I want to do, and my films are personal to me.

I can't tell you how freeing it is to have my own label. For the first time in my career, I have total control.

When I came here it wasn't that I was anti-Music Row, but it was like I was going against the grain of what everybody on Music Row was doing, and that's what has made me successful.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

The pop world is cool, but I never really thought of myself as part of it or wanting to be a part of it because I'm on a label that's not really like that. They're not trying to dress me up, they're not trying to do things like that. I feel like I'm sort of separate from that, actually.

I publish my own music. I'm creating my own songbook. It works that way for me; I'm very independent.

As I say, the Animals had a particular concept of themselves as a band. There was an anarchic spirit in it, which was being flattened by commercial designs, attitudes, and needs.

You can now be a master of your own destiny. I'm not sure why you would sign up with a record label.

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.