Solo Artistry Quotes

I always loved writing songs - writing for myself and demo-ing songs, really with no intention of ever letting anyone else hear them.

My solo album is different from the Black Eyed Peas albums because I'm a singer first and foremost. There are more ballads and more intimacy between me and the listener because sometimes when you're in a group you don't have space to air out your dirty laundry.

I am a sur le motif painter, always in-the-field, with a French easel that folds up into a box, with backpack straps on it. Many of the sites I haunt are desolately beautiful. Few other people go there. I am gloriously alone, unmolested, and absorbed in attempting to see what I am looking at.

Working on art, as opposed to being in a constant collaborative state, as in a band, is something that I've always done - to a smaller degree, but it always remained a part of my integral self.

I have always thought it was important to maintain some connection for myself to what it takes to make a song work by myself, to put a song across to an audience by myself.

When I was recording music, I'd record all the parts myself, and I wouldn't let other people in; that's essentially what Blood Orange is the result of; me trying to find the most comfortable I can be with everything.

I want to save duets and collaborations for outside of the album. With the albums, I like it just being me.

A movie is kind of like being the captain of a ship, which is nice, but when I perform by myself it's just surfing on the water and nobody really knows what happens.

With my first three albums I did everything on my own. It was what I was used to and where I felt comfortable. I would write the lyrics and music and hide the songs from everyone until I felt confident enough for anyone to hear them.

Every song that is a Hopsin song, I 100 percent made it. Nobody helped me. There was no producer to say, 'Hey, put the beat like this... ' It was all me. If the song was wack, then the song was wack. If it's dope, it is what it is.

There's a joy I get from collaborating with other artists, and there's a joy I get from making songs on my own.

To me to be a solo artist means I can do so many new and exciting things and I feel very strongly that one must evolve and grow. I love being a bass player and I feel really good that I was able to spend a focused chapter defining that role, but I'm not someone that likes being in the same role forever.