Levon Helm Quotes

I just continue to look for different material, great material, as good as I can find, and try to go in there and do as good a job as I can do in making it a record. That's all you can expect. That's all that you can do.

I talked to the record company about what I had in mind. They said they wanted something lush. I figured the best thing to do was let them hear what I had in mind.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.

When I was in bands, I always liked the demo best.

When you first start writing a song, it's fun, then when you start recording it, it's fun, but by the time you've finished recording it, you're sick of it.

As a producer, you're pretty much creating a body of work that an artist has to stand behind.

I write the songs, go in and record them, then I listen to everything and decide how it all fits together.

I can make a record when I think I have a good one.

It takes so much energy and time to make one song perfect.

I've learned not turning things up to full volume is a good idea. Also, because I have the freedom, sometimes when I'm writing a song I'll get carried away with production when I'm only on the first verse, and that sacrifices the songwriting.

All day long you write little ideas on the piano and the guitar, but sometimes all you have to do is come in, set up the mic, press record and start the process.

Being in Weezer's just gotten so much more fun over the years. I love almost every part of my job. My very favorite part is working on new songs.

I like being in a recording studio. I like watching a song go from the simplicity of the original music.

T Bone and I grew up together in Fort Worth, Texas. He had his own recording studio by the time he was seventeen years old. When we were both nineteen he made the first archival recording of my voice.

I'm not really gonna stop. We've got so much stuff to do, so many songs we talked about, so many things to record.

I get very deep into the writing and recording process.

Starting a band is the easy part. Once you've formed the band, you have to tell a story, and that story requires songs. And not just good songs, but great songs. After a while, great songs won't do - they have to be the best. Success doesn't make it any easier. Each time I start a new record, it's a brand-new search.

Nothing on 'Relapse' and very little on 'Recovery' was produced by me.

If we were truly in the studio making a record, it would have been more time consuming, and certainly I would have been more involved in the writing process.

I'm always writing songs, and I've got a bunch that I want to record.

All the signs were right. And when I mean all the sings were right, the only signs that we care about when we start a project of making a record is, do we have the songs - it's that simple.

A big part of the Motown formula was, they took music and turned it into this sort of automotive assembly line. They were cranking out 10 songs a day in that studio, or more.

For the most part, I like to record music as I write it.

I wouldn't just have other people write songs and me go out and sing it. I would sit down with a guitar and write 11 or 12 good songs for an album and that is gonna take a long time.

You don't necessarily pick the singles that you want when you're making a record, but for the most part it's the same process. You're the artist - you make the music that you want to make.