Goapele Quotes

Not to speak disparagingly of Justin Bieber or Rihanna, but they're not so hands-on with their image or their sound. They don't write the music. They have people doing things for them.

I've got more creative control when I do music.

I do like what Alicia Keys and John Legend are doing. With their music, you keep your clothes on.

When I first started, the very first body of music I made when I got signed to Atlantic were songs with titles like 'Unify' and 'You're Special.' And there's this song that reminds me of Meghan Trainor that I wrote, about a woman's body and not conforming, when I first started in music.

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

I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

It was a lot easier to write songs before I had a record deal, because the record labels and the industry doesn't mean to put pressure on you, but they do. They don't realize that they are, but you end up having a pressure there that you feel. At times I feel myself wanting to say, 'Just let me do what I do.'

If you wear short skirts you get your femininity back.

When I want to put out an album, I want to write it. I want to be able to say that I wrote my album, and all this stuff is from me.

The real creators of miniskirt are the girls, the same that you seen in the streets.

I think a woman's body is so much more sensual than a man's. I'm not saying strip off all your clothes, but there are certain photos I like people taking of me, where I'm comfortable. As long as it's tasteful, why not?

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.

To me, it's all about opening all the doors and getting people to be not only prolific, but creative and having control of their music.

I'm the guy who wrote The Authority Song. Did they think I was kidding? Did they think it was only a song to entertain?

The music industry is such a different world from the acting world. Everything is really last minute, but I love the challenge, and I love owning my material and being able to put out what I want.

Putting out my album on my own label has been a great experience for me. It's been very inspiring. It's like a new start for me and having all this creative freedom is so liberating and exciting.

I suppose we'll make money off our album and our singles and stuff, but, like, they were made as we wanted them, exactly with what we had to say, and done exactly how we wanted them, right? And, like, we didn't put them out to make money. We put them out because we wanted to do them, do you know what I mean?

Being a pop-leaning, female artist, you'd think that I'd have my record company breathing down my neck and trying to control everything I'm doing. Actually, they've just kind of let me take the wheel.

It's something I decided from the very beginning I would never do - nudity.

In a song you can kind of stage-manage everything so that it puts you in a good light. And once a song is recorded, it always performs well.

I think that I sort of see other actresses are kind of proud of the way they look and show it off. That's never really been my style. I really don't think that it's disgusting or wrong, if you're 18 you're 18, it's your body, it's your right to show yourself, however, I don't really take a part in that. I like to look nice, but I think that there's ways of doing it that are more tasteful than just wearing a bikini wherever you go.

As soon as me and Willow started releasing music, that's one thing that the whole world took away is, okay, they unlocked another step of honesty. If these guys can be honest about everything, then we can be more honest.

The man who tells the tale if he has a tale worth telling will know exactly what he is about and this business of the artist as a sort of starry-eyed inspired creature, dancing along, with his feet two or three feet above the surface of the earth, not really knowing what sort of prints he's leaving behind him, is nothing like the truth.

How can you put out a meaningful drama when every fifteen minutes proceedings are interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits with toilet paper? No dramatic art form should be dictated and controlled by men whose training and instincts are cut of an entirely different cloth. The fact remains that these gentlemen sell consumer goods, not an art form.

The people at the label were great but at the end of the day our visions didn't match up and I knew I had to do it my way. The potential success that could come with signing with a major label didn't quite outweigh how important it was for me to make my music the way I knew it needed to be made. It was a hard decision to make, but I've never regretted it for a second and it's only become more clear to me after making and releasing Stairwells that it was the right one.