Sometimes being an actor is being a song in someone else's mixtape, so I really understand why more and more actors are making films of their own.
I tell myself I use art to promote dissent, but maybe I am just using dissent to promote my art. I plead not guilty to selling out. But I plead it from a bigger house than I used to live in.
I like getting my own thoughts out right now, I have fans to solidify, so that's why I don't do tracks with too many younger rappers or newer artists. People may consider me to be a music snob or whatever, but I like to preserve what's mine and I also don't just do tracks to do tracks, I make every song with a purpose.
Sometimes you get involved in a film because you just love making movies and you want to keep working. Sometimes you're lucky enough to find something that you really care about. Therefore, now I'm emphasizing developing my own projects and writing my own screenplays, so that I can do exactly what I like to do.
If my peers had a significant impact on my music, my music would probably be a lot more popular.
I don't know, I really try not to pay attention to comparisons, 'cause I'm my own artist. I try to build my own sound.
Following the example of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Seger, I wanted to have a band, a sound and a personality, yet maintain a singular position of being able to control and motivate the flow of things.
My whole team, it wasn't about putting the album out, it was about getting off the record company and going independent or going to another label. To the point we were like, 'Listen, just take 'Lasers.' You can have whatever percentage off the next ten records I do for the rest of my life. I just do not want to be here anymore.'
After I made 'Oh Carolina' in the 1990s, the record company wanted me to copy that sound, and I refused.
I just do what I want to do, and if it's a rather interesting script - which I found.
I'm rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it's no longer his... I just see what people make of it.
I just want to be an artist that makes exactly what he feels.
Art is not journalism. In art, you don't make it to convey a message.
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
I don't wanna be like everybody else, I don't wanna rap like everybody else.
Any system that sees aesthetics as irrelevant, that separates the artist from his product, that fragments the work of the individual, or creates by committee, or makes mincemeat of the creative process will, in the long run, diminish not only the product but the maker as well.
You don't really write a hit song - you write a great song, and then, if the public decides it's a hit, they take over from there. The song becomes its own monster.
I started doing Bollywood and film music, and now, it has come to a point where I've started to say no. I want to do my own music. I have been there and done that, so I am not there to achieve that any more. I just want to put my music out there, and if people listen it, okay; if they don't, then fine.
I love doing stand-up. It's so self-contained - you go there, you do it, you go home - but with telly, there are too many people involved with it with opinions. You have a product, and everyone wants to change it.
PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason and ask questions.
I can't tear up a poem and be a sound bite for you. Why is that so hard for anyone to understand?
Film-makers should remain true to their principles and never compromise, there is a real revival in the British film industry but there is a danger that we will become colonial servants of Hollywood. We need to maintain our own integrity.
When I get to make a movie, I really try to make it on my own terms.
I don't have to be working on an album to record a song.
I have to be my own artist. I need the world to know who I am, especially for music. When it comes to acting, that is a whole other story. I have no complaints; that's a team effort. It's not just me, it's everyone. But when it comes to music, it is solo; that's all me.
