Lester Bowie Quotes

This is a very screwed-up business. Record labels don't sign a lot of bands these days. We just want to find a home and stay there and make records and do our thing and not have to look over our shoulder.

The independent route was the best move for me. But I think I've maximized everything I could do independently. I've done everything out the mixtape market. I think getting the big machine behind you is the next stage when you've maximized the independent level.

My record label is treating me like I'm a new artist, which is exciting after all this time.

If anything, I'm the most hesitant to bring on a label. That terrifies me. I think people believe major labels are linked to success. They're absolutely not that.

That's the best thing about being with an indie label, it feels like a family. If it's a major label, they put so much pressure on every single.

I was fortunate enough to have gone through the major label process and kind of have the inside scoop on some things, some information I wouldn't have normally had. To go from a major to an independent, I don't think it's an easy transition.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

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.

There are certainly things labels can still provide that indie artists can't. They can pave the way to radio and pay big bucks for promotion.

You don't want the biggest record deal as far as money goes, you just want to make sure that the people at the label really support your band and the music and stuff.

Now so many really good groups who have had a first major hit can't get a deal for a second one.

Once I started looking for a record deal, I had a trainer. And the trainer told me that I would never sell a record if I didn't lose weight.

As far as being on a major label, some labels get it and get what they have to do, and some labels don't. I don't think the label I'm on necessarily gets it, but I think over time they're gonna have to.

The truth is an artist like me who doesn't get the type of promotion that we see more commercial artists receive, and especially in this climate of the music business, you have to be creative about how you promote yourself.

I tried to bang down a lot of doors but Virgin were the only label who believed in what I was doing. I ended up with the label that understood what I was trying to do.

I was signed at 19 years old to a major label, and dropped by the time I was 22.

I never solicited a major label and I certainly wouldn't now.

I love having a major label behind me. Independent was really great to start off, as and I made some really big moves and gained a lot of fans.

When you get a record deal, you got to be pretty headstrong, know your direction.

There was a moment, a few weeks after I signed, that it actually hit me. I was signed to a major label.

We laid the foundation before we went to a major label.

When you find fame, or you get signed to a record label, it's not what you imagined - because you imagined they would have 100 percent trust or faith in you as an artist. Unfortunately, that's not really the case - it's what sells.

If we meet some people that are in love with NFG that are a major label, then we'll sign with them. If we meet people that are in love with NFG that are an independent label - and they have a plan - well, then we'll sign to them. It's completely up to us.

You wait all your life to be signed by a major label, and then when they sign you, they don't want you to do what you want to do.

If a new artist comes, and he doesn't have a good record label to invest in him, then there is no point.