Ed Kowalczyk Quotes

Even the bands I dig don't have a history of attaining mass consumption.

I can be accused of trying to be commercial sometimes.

I don't believe that to be mainstream you have to be foolish. I don't think you have to be a buffoon to sell. I think you can be logical, aesthetic and still work within the mainstream format.

I want my music to be really big. I have no interest in DIY Brooklyn; I don't want to be a small indie band.

Mainstream success is important - that's probably anathema to an indie publication like Pitchfork, but it's what I believe having experienced it personally.

We're going to see a very, very commercial kind of picture-making.

Being shoved into the top-40 scene was an unusual experience. It was great I'd become accessible to a huge audience but not terribly fulfilling.

I'm just not interested in selling out to get on the charts and make people happy.

But I never had that commercial opportunity to be played on the radio, so how could I be popular?

I'm very scared sometimes that fashion might attack its own magic by the amount of exposure.

I feel that I want what allows me to reach the largest number of people as possible, and I don't feel ashamed of that. I think I'm the kind of artist that's meant to be on a major label because my music is different.

Selling millions of albums is a sign you've infiltrated the culture.

If the choice is between doing something supercool and having no one hear it and doing something equally cool and tricking people into putting it on the radio, I don't think the second option is some big sellout.

Sometimes when things you love get really commercial, you end up feeling betrayed by it.

Many musicians will say they don't care about the money yet they must commit themselves to appear at given times and places, and to produce what sells, whether they believe in it or not. It depends on contracts.

There's something extraordinary about selling millions and millions of albums.

I want to be commercial. I'm never the person who says, 'I don't care if people don't see my movies.' I always want people to see my movies.

I don't think you're selling out by allowing the masses to love your art. The only curse is that, when you get so big, sometimes people forget to look at the music.

I am not against doing commercial cinema at all.

We don't want it to be obscure music. We're not trying to be indie. We want to be popular.

The truth is, that's what we moved to Nashville to do - to learn how to write hit songs. We weren't necessarily trying to get on college radio. We're trying for mass appeal.

You can make serious pop, you know? There was a time when the best movies were the most popular, and I keep thinking that can happen again.

Big films help your reach a wider audience, and doing independent films keeps your artistic side happy.

I guess the bottom line is I don't make music that is consumed en masse.

We're just nerds that play music. Because we get played on the radio and have a Vitaminwater ad with Aaron Paul dancing on a treadmill, people are going to say we sold out. I don't write music for that. I write music for me.