Madeleine Peyroux Quotes

Probably the biggest bring-down in my life was being in a pop group and finding out just how much it was like everything it was supposed to be against.

Because the pop industry is cruel, if you don't do everything the label wants you to do, it has an army of other people waiting to do it.

The record business is dangerous to the health of bands and individuals, which is something I'm just now learning. But it's not dangerous in any of the ways people think; it's not that they try to make you compromise your art. That's not the problem.

You see artists hailed as a new generation of independents, only to be enlisted to leverage product.

I got out of the business because I went from being the biggest artist on my record label to someone they didn't even want to have around.

I did sign to Ruthless Records, but they didn't really support me.

Labels fund things and have resources for you to use. But just because you sign doesn't mean you sign yourself away so they can then tell you what to do. You need to have a plan yourself before they do.

In the '80s, I got tired of the rat race. It was a terrible time for music. I wasn't part of that whole MTV craze. I did 'Go Ahead and Rain,' which was Madeleine Stowe's first bit, but felt no connection to it. I went many years where I didn't have to work.

Record companies are not necessarily interested in you realizing your artistic dream. The bottom line is that they got to sell records.

I just did one movie and there was no career for me, anyway.

I have been skeptical and not trusting of traditional models of the entertainment industry. I never got a manager.

I've never worried about how a new release will be received. I simply try to do the best I can and leave the rest to the gods. The music industry in those terms is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine.

There are a lot of bands and performers whose careers are permanently derailed by spectacularly bad management.

I feel Motown really exploited me.

I wanted to put out a solo record because I was stuck on a major label and sick of it.

If there was ever any truth to the trickle-down theory, the only evidence of it I've ever seen was in that period of 1960 to 1965. All of sudden they were handing out major label recording contracts like they were coming in Cracker Jack boxes.

I think actors are at the mercy of the opportunities presented to them. So you kind of have to wait for them to choose you. My music is insular - I can choose that.

I was totally ignored for a while... that's a hazard of signing with a small company who say how small they are and how close to the artists they are. Suddenly they don't have any time for you.

Everything Ticketmaster stands for is what we're fighting against. They're just a small cog in a machine where the artist is at the bottom.

I wanted it to be like Amy Grant, but it didn't pan out that way. My label actually went bankrupt, and I was left without a home.

I see myself as the buffer between the band and the record company.

Everything about the music industry takes away from you as an artist. They're always wondering what the next thing is: 'What do you have?' It's a very introverted process.

Every musician in the known universe has signed a bad piece of paper, myself included. But it's really very simple. You're the artist. It's your picture that's going on the CD cover, nobody else's. Protect yourself. Get a good lawyer. You'll kick yourself later if you don't.

So I guess the complete lack of any new developments is what struck me. That and the fact that much of the good we had done for the artists' side of the industry with G.O.D. had been just as quickly undone by the big boys.

Artists and the traditional record company model are at odds. The music business has notoriously taken from the artist. That shouldn't be the narrative.