I'm a true believer that unless you're Prince or Stevie Wonder - and even Prince is showing that he needs help - not everybody can produce themselves. I'm definitely not that person.
I don't think people realize that I produce like 90 percent of all my music, except for the songs that I co-produce with people.
Honestly, the thing that I have found to be most useful over a long career, or maintaining a long career, is taking back the power at some point and self-producing.
I didn't want to just be an artist and let someone else have all that control over me. I knew I would have to produce.
I've always considered myself a filmmaker who writes stuff for himself to do.
Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.
As soon as I became proactive in producing my own stuff, I started getting other roles.
All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.
I've always been sort of entrepreneurial. ... I felt that I needed to learn how to write and produce so I could write my own thing and not worry about Hollywood finding me.
'Love Tattoo' I recorded without a record company. I'd gotten turned down by the record companies - they said they didn't get me, which is fine, I suppose.
The crews that are going to be self-produced are going to make the great albums, as opposed to making these mix-tapes, these compilations - "Me over this guy" It sounds good individually, but the art of the record is something that is lost. It gets to the point where it's just vocalists and producers coming in and piecing things together.
Many young girls are constantly consumed by controlling and managing their body image to the extent that they are much more involved in the production of the self than in living.
As an independent artist, you control the means of production, which is the ultimate form of empowerment.
I did my own music videos, my own TV commercials.
It's so cheap to just release a movie. You can do it by yourself if you have to. Put in on the Internet if you have to.
I did a record with a producer, and the good producers eat up the budget, so I didn't have any budget left to produce this record. I had to produce it myself.
Technology being the way it is, and record sales being the way it is, there are not too many things that you need to depend on a label for that you can't go out and do yourself.
If you're just an actor you're reactive. You're saying, "Well, I hope Hollywood gives me a role, or gives me a chance at a role," whereas if you can generate your own content, then you can go where you want to go.
Boygenius' was the first time I produced without a producer-producer in the room. It's been crazy.
Aziz Ansari was on 'Parks and Recreation' for, I don't know, what, seven years? And he was a really popular stand-up comedian. He even says that his Netflix show wouldn't have gotten made unless he created it himself. No one was probably willing to put someone like Aziz as the lead in a show until he actually created it himself.
When you're your own producer, you do the most ridiculous, insane things.
Getting a Grammy nomination for 'Brooklyn' meant a lot, especially because, as an album, it was one that was very personal to me but also one that I self-produced and had gone outside the label.
I don't know if most people know it or not, but I produce, like, 95% of my own stuff.
You need to write on your own and produce your own life.
When I make my own videos, I am the writer, the editor, the lighting person, everything - that's why my videos are blurry.
