Idris Elba Quotes

I've been really trying to put people onto, like, my sound since I was, like, 17, 16.

Last year I was 16, it was my first round of releasing music. Since then I've been working more on having an identity as an artist and really figuring out what it is that I want to talk about and how I want to sound.

I'm consistently recording and releasing stuff online or YouTube videos or whatever it is. I just don't know if it's going to be a full on, I'm the next Rihanna, or whatever. I'm not going for it to that level. But I love making music and I don't think I could stop if I wanted to.

The thing about 'Hold Back The River' that I like is that it's a good starting place, and it was the perfect first single.

I started out as a guitarist in the early '80s.

Trying to get my music performed live by bar bands was a self defeating experience. It really just distracted me from what I should've been doing all along, writing and recording.

If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.

I've dedicated more than 15 years to this theater and television thing; I want to spend the next 10, 15 years or so devoted to music.

Before I was working professionally, I would do YouTube covers. But as a creative person, it was really hard for me when I wasn't releasing my own music. That felt unnatural to me.

I've always had such a high level of respect for Taylor Swift because she writes all of her music.

'Use Somebody' I posted - it was the end of 2009, around Christmas. That was my first video.

It doesn't make sense for me to try to be, like, a dance dude who only releases two 12-inches a year and then plays every weekend. Making an album, you get to put out a body of work that shows a lot of different sides of you. And you get to work on it for an intense period of time and promote that album. And then you get to move on.

I always knew, that in some way, I'd be connected to, and involved in, the music business.

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

I have very much enjoyed being in the music business in different roles through five different decades.

Now that I'm coming out with my own record people can see I'm a solo artist.

My sons are coming out with music. Square Off, they're called.

I probably listen to Burn more than any of them, because it was so new me, so novel. To see my name on an actual record was such an incredible feeling.

Music is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

All of them had so much to offer us as far as, you know, knowledge in the music industry, and especially Randy and Paula because, you know, they've been artists.

I feel confident that the work I've put in will make people see me as a music artist before anything else.

That's one of the problems with making music your business, it becomes a business. You're no longer just this kid who is a fan and going to see every show. I've been in a bar every night for the last 15 years. Going to see bands for me is work.

There was never really a Plan B for me - I always wanted to be a music artist.

I want to figure out what kind of artist I want to be, because with the 'American Idol' process, it just works really fast. The night of the finale, they said, 'OK, here are all the label people that you're gonna work with, this is the album you're gonna make and blah, blah, blah.' So it was a pretty fast process, but it's been cool.

I always knew I'd be in music in some sort of capacity. I didn't know if I'd be successful at it, but I knew I'd be doing something in it. Maybe get a job in a record store. Maybe even play in a band. I never got into this to be a star.