When I started making music I wanted it to have a narrative and be conceptual, but as time went on I thought it was probably more practical for a first album just to have good music.
Cry Baby is a character so I think that the next album is going to be about a specific thing in her life or another place in her world. It's going to be a bit deeper into a bigger picture.
Cry Baby is about Cry Baby and the next album [which I think I have a title for but I don't wanna say anything yet because I don't know and it's too early] is a place in the weird town that I'm trying to create and its Cry Baby's perspective throughout this album. You're not learning about her, you're learning about the place that she's in and her perspective. Down the line for sure I will think of other characters in this world.
I wouldn't do a whole pop album. But I would do a musical.
We all like all of that, from 'Rubber Soul' to 'The White Album' and all of that, but even before, we were into that theatrical element of things. We didn't want to do a 'Sgt. Pepper's' thing.
I don't want to put 12 singles on an album. I want to make a story, a little movie.
I got an album concept called 'Exit Strategy,' that might be one of my last ones. It's a term they use in business when you build companies. You create an exit strategy as you make a company. You don't wait till you're five years in it; you create a exit strategy as you make the company.
Normally when I do an album, I have a concept behind it.
Most of my albums have a concept. They all have some kind of theme, some kind of feeling. I really take pride in that.
We want people to listen to records, to a whole body of music. I want you to buy into my life, not just one subject in my life.
Of the 25 songs we've recorded there were 24 that we wanted to have on an album. That wouldn't have worked. So when one of our wise managers suggested the idea of considering two different album, it cleared the way for us.
In my mind, an album shouldn't be self-titled unless it feels that way.
I knew I was going to do a country album one day. But I was just trying to figure out for the life of me, what we were going to do to make it different, unique.
When you're putting together a concept album, it's all about the flow and the story.
So like what I want to do is connect all of my albums and make it tell a bigger kind of story. So the first album is very focused on her family life and her love life.
The record was only released in the UK, and then when the idea for the remixed album came about, which was an idea that I've had for the longest time, I said this would be great song to remix as well, and so we did it.
I'm gonna stay an album guy. In fact, concept albums are really blowing my mind right now, because if you want to promote an album, think about it - a concept album might be the way to go.
I always wanted to make a three-record set. 'Sign o' the Times' was originally supposed to be a triple album, but it ended up as a double.
I like the idea of working in an album-sized chunk, you know, and I never looked at Nine Inch Nails as a project that would be a hit-driven, single-based kind of thing.
The idea [of A Period of Transition album] was to get a break from everything for a while because I've been doing it for so long. I started doing it when I was 12.
Instead of writing songs for girls, I tend to write albums, which I guess is a bit weird.
Nothing me and Kanye can do musically was gonna match the event of what we were trying to do. So we were trying to deliver an album and experience at one time; that was the idea for 'Watch The Throne'.
I strongly believe in the art form of the album.
This album is my life, and my life's really not that interesting. It's not "not interesting," but I'm just some dude just like everyone else. But by recording it in an album format, it becomes a product. That's the idea of Built on Glass; it's the relationship between my personal life and the music I make.
I've been debating with people over what an album actually means in 2018. Certain artists who have paid their dues and proven themselves have almost the privilege to put out a full length album.
