Ed O'Brien Quotes

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.

Any band that is out there chasing it is doing more destruction to music then someone who is out there playing what they truly feel.

I am very aware now that music is a business, but there is also a way to go about making music that is true to yourself as opposed to doing, you know, just going through the motions and making things that would just be commercially successful.

I think the key to making records generally is to make 'em for yourself, regardless of the climate in the business.

I never do anything to strictly satisfy a fickle, ever-changing commercial world. I do the music I like to play. It's the only way I feel comfortable existing in the industry.

I look up to Tegan & Sara, obviously, Adele and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. All these artists are strong in their convictions, and they haven't changed who they are for the music business.

You shouldn't be in the music business if you're posing.

If you make music with business in your head, it'll show. I make it from the heart. There's a difference.

You don't try to get influenced by everything that's going on with all the other music around you. You don't listen to the radio - I mean, I don't. When I get ready to do an album, I don't listen to anybody else; I don't wanna be influenced.

I refused to wear make-up on TV. I wanted my music to be heard.

I've been hugely inspired by the songwriting of Lauryn Hill and Tracy Chapman - on their albums, they really tell it like it is.

I would rather fall flat on my face than try to just make a quick dollar by making music that fits into the radio format right now. It does nothing for me.

If one uses music that one does not really love, then one will not succeed in making it one's own.

In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

When I'm writing music, I'm not playing a character. I'm not Alice Cooper or Gene Simmons or someone like that, who has acknowledged that they are writing music for a character.

I try to make my music interesting to me first, then hopefully other people will find it interesting, too.

The fun thing about song writing is that it's just creative. It can be whatever you want it to be. For me, I'm really protective of that. I'm not going to write something because I feel like it fits here or it fits there - I just want to write music that feels good to me, you know?

I am in a business that's built on record sales and reputation and how your single is doing and where your song is on iTunes. But the kind of music that I do comes from my beliefs.

Music's supposed to come from the heart. I felt like that if it ever got mechanical, I was going to back away from it.

I like to make the music that I really love. You're supposed to make your favorite music that no one else played, and I'd like to just keep it at that and not really change it at all.

I didn't want to be told what to do. I don't want to water down my music to fit into their formats. I know what rock and roll is to me, but everything's turning into one big commercial.

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

I never thought of having platinum albums and winning awards. I just wanted to write songs and sing when I started out in the music business.