Adam Schlesinger Quotes

There hasn't been one moment in my career where I felt I didn't have any control over the creative aspects of my records.

In Mudcrutch we all wrote songs, and when it got to the focus on Tom and the Heartbreakers, I kept writing songs, but it wasn't anything that was up the Heartbreakers tree, I didn't think - and I don't think they did, either. So I kept writing songs for the hell of it, but I didn't want to make a record just for the sake of making a record.

The people who are competing business-wise out there want what other successful labels and artists have. I don't want what they have; I want my own path, my own sound, my own identity. Record labels care nothing about identity or artistic freedom, they want good business.

I make the kind of music I like.

I'm gonna make my records, whether I release them as Bleachers or something else.

I have a hard time working with other people with my own songs because I have a pretty complete idea of how it should be. It's usually just me multi-tracking which is better than coercing someone into doing my idea.

There are those people who try to change what you're doing. We don't like that. When we went into the studio for 'City of Evil,' we had 99 percent of the songs finished and ready to record.

We've been fully involved in making our music, and to be personally involved is what we really asked for.

Artists who are passionate about their music and in love with their art go independent because they want to continue making music and serving it to the world.

Can't nobody make you make any music that you don't wanna make. Remember that.

Art is something to be proud of. Art is no compromise. As an actor, you're giving it up, you're at the mercy of so many other people.

Most artists should be able to make the album that they want. You don't necessarily pick the singles that you want when you're making a record, but for the most part it's the same process.

Getting a Grammy nomination for 'Brooklyn' meant a lot, especially because, as an album, it was one that was very personal to me but also one that I self-produced and had gone outside the label.

For us, we make a song, and if we like it, it goes on a record.

I'm just happy I got to express who I am as an artist and touch people's hearts.

I'd only do a deal with a label if it allowed me to still be indie and have that indie mentality. I have to have creative control.

I made a conscious decision when I was recording 'Acoustic Soul' to - and this is one of my mantras - follow the music and let the chips fall where they may.

The spirit of Burzum never changed, but my ability to make music changed dramatically when I was imprisoned. It is more or less impossible to record music in prison, and the only music I could record was electronic music, when I was allowed to have a synthesizer for a few months in 1994 or 1995 and in 1998.

With my first three albums I did everything on my own. It was what I was used to and where I felt comfortable. I would write the lyrics and music and hide the songs from everyone until I felt confident enough for anyone to hear them.

I don't make films for critics, and I'm not particularly interested in what they have to say, and they don't have a bearing on my audiences.

I don't make music for the radio. And when I was being played on the radio a lot, I didn't.

In the beginning, because of the Pavement thing, we were able to sell a certain amount of records. We were able to sell not such a great amount of records, but enough to live on. So there was no incentive to do what didn't come naturally.

It wasn't slung together by a producer and a publisher. We decided we were going to take hold of our music and let it evolve organically.

I have no choice in what direction my music goes, honestly, as all I get is what I'm given. I start writing the songs, and they start presenting themselves the way they want to be heard.

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