Andy Taylor Quotes

Who decides what is and what isn't punk? I want to write songs that people hear and feel, and I want to be successful and reach a big audience. I'm not trying to be the coolest guy in the world; I'm trying to write songs that mean something to people. As you get successful, sometimes you lose one set of fans and gain another.

I got to feel like what I'm giving the fans is 100 percent and that it's game-changing.

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.

The artists in country music who stopped having hits are the ones who were led into something that wasn't them.

It would be nice to garner new fans and make it a success - and success is relevant, we already know all that.

I was never trying to write a hit. I was just trying to write good songs and get a message out, and it was my great good fortune to be popular.

It's interesting, because as a musician, I don't feel like I need to be on the top of the pop charts.

There is a big difference between No. 1 and No. 2. I don't care who wrote it. I'd love to one day have a No. 1 that I wrote, but if that ain't in the cards, whatever. My job is right now is to make the best music I can and try to get it to the people, whether it be something that I wrote or not. It's my job to be the best I can for the fans.

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.

I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does.

There's a lot of pressure that comes from the mainstream stuff, and already people who have been saying - people who don't know any better - have been saying things to me like, 'You should really think about neosoul. You'd definitely be more successful in that.' But that's not my expression.

If you want to make money, that's great, but if you make great music, you're going to make money anyway. Keep your eyes on making a great product. You don't even have to promote it.

We had to take full advantage of the fact that we wanted to be one of the most creative bands out there that's getting backed by one of the biggest companies.

It's really weird how the rock world is quickly becoming like the jazz world. How if you do OK, or get a tiny bit of success, that's considered a sellout, whether you did anything different or not.

Tears for Fears was always very personal, but at the same time, it was always big business, a lot of pressure.

I've learned that if you don't have anyone opposing your work, if you don't have anyone thinking, 'Man, that should be me. I could do that. I should have thought of that, or they must have teams of people doing it for them,' your work simply isn't reaching enough people to be relevant.

We're not pop stars. Living with success is a job; it's the music that's dear to us.

The truth is there's so many great TV shows out there now that none of us take absence of awards personally. The most important feedback is the feedback we get from the fans.

They know that the column resonates in the community. They know that people like it, and yet they don't have room for one column once week that consistently got it right.

I think it's all about the people who listen to your music, and loving playing and writing. Once you've got those two, and they're your main two priorities, then radio and TV and all the other stuff that comes with it will come. But that's not the be-all end-all.

If you're really on top, you probably didn't do that great, 'cause you have to water it down a bit for it to get that mass appeal.

If it turns out to be a hit, well, good luck dealing with fame. And if it's not a hit and you can still survive and make music you believe in, well, then you're truly blessed. I think that's where we are now.

You don't base records on success; you base it on creativity.

It's much easier to be successful than it is to be relevant. The tricks won't keep you relevant. Tricks might keep you popular for a while, but in all honesty, I don't know how U2 will stay relevant. I know we've got a future. I know we can fill stadiums. And yet with every record, I think, 'Is this it? Are we still relevant?'

If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately.