Imelda May Quotes

I made this record without a record label.

You don't need a record company to turn you into anything.

I'd been doing my own thing, and making my own money; I wasn't built by a record label or the music industry, nor was I built by prominent artists that have given me co-signs.

Finally I'd found this way where I didn't need a record label; I didn't need to wait for some phone call to tell me, 'Go and do it'. It's like, I'm going to get up with a bag of CDs and an amp and my guitar and make it happen for myself. That was such a liberating feeling, and I think it was the start of everything.

I always thought that if record companies didn't understand me, fine - I'd go and do it by myself.

That's my favorite subject because it really levels the playing field for artists these days. You don't have to sell out to the record company. You don't have to get a five hundred thousand dollars, or whatever, and pay them back for the rest of your life to record a record.

I have just enough people paying attention that I have the freedom to be in charge. And I have a great record company - Nonesuch understands what I'm about.

Leaving the record companies tweaked something inside me and I realised I don't have to deal with labels to make something happen. If I want to meet someone, I don't have to go through the label - I'll just go to them. I took my life in my hands and social media has just helped me do that more.

I've been lucky to be able to make the records I've wanted to make. The record company has never pressured me to cut certain songs.

Putting out my album on my own label has been a great experience for me. It's been very inspiring. It's like a new start for me and having all this creative freedom is so liberating and exciting.

When you get to a point where you're not beholden to a record company, then it's up to you to say, 'OK, enough knob-turning. We're done.'

After I made 'Oh Carolina' in the 1990s, the record company wanted me to copy that sound, and I refused.

I'm an independent. I've signed with no label.

I've been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long... I was like, 'Let's do it for ourselves.' All these songs, we've travelled the world - no record label, nothing. We just did this for us, but the love is very appreciated.

I don't have to worry about what the average record company person thinks because I am the record company person.

Starting my own label was more out of necessity. I'm not going to sit around and wait for labels to come screaming.

My whole team, it wasn't about putting the album out, it was about getting off the record company and going independent or going to another label. To the point we were like, 'Listen, just take 'Lasers.' You can have whatever percentage off the next ten records I do for the rest of my life. I just do not want to be here anymore.'

It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

I can show bands how to produce themselves. In the same way, many bands think you can't make it without some fat cat in London or New York to manage you. That's just crap. All you need is someone a bit older than you with a bit of business nous whom you trust.

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

Well, since I produce and pay for my own albums, it is the ultimate freedom.

I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

I suddenly realized that in order to do what I wanted to do, I had to become that which I hated - which is the head of a record company or a digital media conglomerate - and just do whatever you want.

I am not going to be dictated to by fans, certainly. I am dictated enough to by my record company to last me a million years.

Yes it was we, are a few years back parted from our record company and took the album that we were making with them and released it independently in the United States had a number one Independent debut in the United States.