Bryan Ferry Quotes

For a long time, we just played here - Columbus is a perfect place to work your way up and maybe build a fan base.

Music reality shows are a good thing, especially for those seeking a career in music.

My music and my fan base is really built off of my lifestyle.

I'm really happy with Elektra, I don't have anything bad to say about them at all. I always knew a major label was the right place for me to be. I never really had an opportunity to go to an independent label anyway.

I've always known, before I had a record deal, that the thing is to go out and put on the show. I've been doing that from day one.

Since I was 17, I had been just making records and promoting them.

Every band I knew or played with had flyers and properly-recorded demos and contacts; I couldn't even get a gig.

I submitted videos and applications to talent agencies and TV shows; I drove to Vegas and visited agents. I was on 'America's Got Talent'; I played for free at venues in attempts to be 'found' and yet all the experts in the entertainment industry told me that what I did was not marketable and that I had to join a group or do more traditional music.

When you first start out in the music business and hope that you have a couple hits, the ultimate payoff is to be standing in front of all those people who are singing it back to you at the top of their lungs. And you know by the way they're singing it back that it's affected their life in some way. That's the ultimate reward as an artist for me.

I want a long-lasting career. I want to build up a fan base that will come to my shows and love me no matter if I have a song on the radio or not.

I know a lot of people who jumped into a record label right away, dropped an album, and then nothing happened for them. Build your fan base first, and follow your gut.

I had been writing songs for awhile - since I was 14 - and playing guitar, but I never really knew how to go about making an actual career.

If you're an artist, create music and put it out on the Internet. If you do this consistently, your fan base will continue growing, and that will power your entire career.

Instead, of worrying if something will be a hit, bands need to go out and make good music, get a following, play live. That's how you make a career these days.

If I could have stayed independent from the jump, then, maybe, things would have been different. 'Return of 4Eva' would have been an album instead of a mixtape.

I've always been making music, but I sort of went under the radar. I kind of disappeared... I was never really that comfortable with the music industry. I loved the idea of being able to express myself creatively - but the rest of it never really sat well with me.

I started gravitating towards Soundcloud. So, that was my hustle and then I met my manager Justin in 2012 and we were just grinding it out in New York.

You don't even know are we going to have a career? Are we going to be able to sell records? Are we going to have a label?

My manager, my band members, we're all good friends. You need that because a lot of times an artist will be so sheltered he will lose touch with what the fans want.

Since the start of my career I've been doing a lot of music for films. It was important for me to focus on only that for some time, till I have a name that people can bank on, trust and support.

Generally what you see happen is these talented kids make a great album, but they don't have a chance unless they have someone working with them who has integrity. They get thrown out by MTV and radio in six weeks, and they don't get any time to grow.

We came from a small village and there is no music business there.

I've always had a plan for my music career.

I came to realize that if I was going to succeed in the music industry, I was going to have to learn how to perform my songs myself.

Nobody is going to hand you a music career.