Jay DeMarcus Quotes

Most bands don't work out. A small unit democracy is very, very difficult.

Being a producer, I deal with a lot of different directors, and some of them would drive me insane with all the different histrionics, and the mystique that they carry.

I've been in a band, so I understand the politics. Sometimes the bass player doesn't like what the guitar player is doing, and you have to sort of even that out.

It's very difficult sometimes having bands, you know, when all the members aren't on the same page.

Being in a band is a really magical thing because you've got a family and you operate as this one entity. It's very democratic; everyone is involved in the output. But within that, there can be a lot of disagreements and strife.

The Animals were their own worst enemy. The Animals were a band that couldn't live up to their name. I was the singer in the band and as long as I was enjoying myself I would keep on working with the band. But it got to be rather nasty once the big money showed up - things started to turn toxic.

When you're in a band, it's like everyone's the CEO, and anyone could destroy it at any moment.

This is one of my lesser moments, and one I'm not proud to admit to, but there's always a time I feel the need to have control over the process and try to defend the song from the person I'm writing with. It never, ever helps and always causes problems.

As an actor, I was often shielded from the big-picture decisions. But as a producer, I experience all the conversations where there's pushback or a difference of opinion.

With Dream Theater, every creative aspect of the group went through me. I oversaw it all from top to bottom.

Working with friends isn't easy - the nature of an artistic project means it's about two strong visions colliding and a bit of mental wrestling.

It's not a 'sexy' position, being the producer. You have to be very bossy. You have to be very aggressive.

It was fine at the start but there's always politics in any band. It just happened that I always got more vocals than everybody else, so in terms of people wanting their voice heard, that wasn't happening. It made people, very bitter.

We can't seem to put out an album without any drama.

I always felt like there were always egos involved when I was trying to get music finished in New Order. Sometimes it would feel like I was running through water.

It was always very important for us that we presented ourselves as a band, because it's a three-part writing process and it's a three-part decision making process, it's not two producer guys and a girl that sings the songs. It's startling how many people make that assumption.

There are two types of bands - there are the ones that are basically solo projects anyways, where there's clearly the one guy who's driving the ship and everyone else is just along for the ride. And then there was my band, where you have a few very disparate-taste, creative people who kind of meet in the middle somewhere.

Wu-Tang has only done, like, three rehearsals throughout our whole career.

When it comes to being in a band or going solo, one is collaborative, and one is not. But generally speaking, when going solo, I am the boss. People can contribute ideas, but I am the boss. When collaborating, you make compromises and look for a common ground.

Being in a band, you become each other's best friends as well as each other's worst enemies.

The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it's going to sound like - all of it: the why, when, and how.

One of the main reasons why it didn't work out for me and Aftermath is because I felt my music should sound one way, and they felt it should sound another. But, I learned a lot from watching Dre, and when I left California, I knew it was time for me to get my own label.

I do not run my band like The Eagles, for sure. I've never had to be heavy handed.

Paul forced the Beatles to work a lot harder than they would have otherwise, and he did the same thing with Wings.

On 'Cardamom,' I had pretty much total control on all of the musical stuff, but I asked a friend of mine to take the picture for the cover, and I asked a friend of mine to draw the back.