Kevin McDonald Quotes

When I play discos in Belfast or freshers' week in Oxford, there are 1,800 kids dressed as me. It's odd, it's funny, and it pays really well.

Toting around a full orchestra on tour is very ambitious. I would consider doing a show now and then, like do a show at Radio City or Carnegie Hall with a full orchestra.

'She's Country' obviously changed a lot of things for us and pretty much, I think, doubled our crowd size in just a few months time.

My philosophy is that on a scale of 1 to 10, I will go to 15. No matter what!

We're not going to pierce everything that we have and paint our faces trying to get a different market. We'll grow with our audience. We're just going to keep doing what we do.

When you get to play with the big boys, your game improves drastically.

My preference is 3,000, maybe 5,000-seat venues.

I have the opportunity to be part of swimming history. To take the sport to a new level would be an honor for me. There's no better time to try this than now.

With a sequel you're always trying to get bigger and better.

I wanna cover more ground, get a bigger fan base.

The 'Inside' record definitely opened up a whole new audience.

I watched R.E.M. connect with the back row of a 50,000-seat venue.

Filling a theatre like the Olympia or Vicar Street on your own name is a very rewarding moment.

We have the fact we sell out every week to 67,500 and hopefully 75,000 in the future. We have a lot of assets.

New Year's Eve, we're going to be doing a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Symphony Hall. It makes me feel good, because of all the people they could have had, they wanted me! We do have to do a little work with the rhythm section.

In the music world, concerts unfold strictly according to plan. But, as I'd been finding out, in the book world, things keep changing by the second.

Whenever I visit a city, I like to see what classical music concerts are on offer.

It's amazing to see places like Madison Square Garden on the schedule again.

I have to grow with my audience.

I decided we should book ourselves, so I started booking the band.

Since my 'Crown of Midnight' tour in 2013, we've had such a rapid jump in audience numbers that we've had to move to bigger venues, cap events, and find new and creative ways to keep the line flowing while still allowing me the chance to chat with each person, which will always be very, very important to me.

Let's make Holberton one of the biggest schools on the face of the planet.

The Guthrie Theater is a beast. It has 1,300 seats, and I couldn't act there. I always felt I was acting too small. I'd always have to fight to get the gumption to act bigger. There's a weird trick to it. You don't want to overwhelm the first six rows. You don't want to starve the back. I could never get it.

I really loved touring with my band, but it felt like we would spend a lot of time playing in empty rooms - empty clubs. We had some good successes, but it's so physically hard to load up a van and drive all day.

I've played in some pretty weird settings; busking puts you in all kinds of situations. I can tell you the most depressing gig I've played was in the North of England. At that time, I was playing with a band. We drove 7 or 8 hours to Carlisle to play a 600 - 700 capacity venue - 9 people showed up.