It's a blue album, but it's not a blues album. I'm not pretending all of a sudden now I'm blues.
I always wanted to have my own album released before I graduated from high school.
I'm remixing an R.E.M. track called 'I've Been High' from their last album, 'Reveal.' It's a beautiful song, but record execs didn't put it out as a single because it didn't sound like the R.E.M. we're used to. So I asked Michael Stipe if I could have the tapes to do a remix, and he agreed.
I've had this song in a drawer for a long time, maybe seven or eight years. Every time I'd do an album, I'd take it out and listen to it, and always liked what it had to say. Plus when Garth came in and sang on it, that made it really special.
What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make, there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.
If I tried to make a commercial album, it would be a complete flop. I have no idea what the world at large likes.
I would love to do an album of standards!
Depending on which day, and how I am feeling on that day, I have a different favorite song on the album. One day it might be 'Karma', and other days it is 'Stay For A While'
They've got the singles and some people have burnt them from different web sites and stuff. So it was something that we talked about for a long, long time, and I just wanted to make sure that this remix album to be really special.
I don't wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don't get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn't interested in that.
'The Taxi Ride,' from my second album, is one people want to hear a lot. I'm consciously trying to walk on the sunny side of the street, to really lift myself into a place of greater positivity, and that's a sad song.
A lot of the album 'The Definition' was made from two things: Pixar movies and J. Dilla.
I had a breakthrough, I think my life just became calmer, I gave up drinking. My priorities changed as I had a young daughter. The group didn't want me to record for the Think Tank album... so I took it as a sign to leave.
When I was working at the Sprint store, I got laid off. I was bummed out, but I stayed positive. I used the money I had earned while working there to make my first album. Without that job, maybe 'Corazon Sin Cara' would never had been made. It's a very inspirational story.
'Call Me' is not an exceptional Al Green album, but it is as solid as a rock at its center.
If I have a rap album I'm dropping, then I want it to be the best rap album.
That's a fantasy of mine. We could do every record in a residency. It would be so cool. We could play the B-sides along with the album and get really creative with it.
A lot of the songs on '2' are pretty personal, but even if I'm writing about something like that, I still tend to keep it pretty simple and open-ended. I like the idea of people listening to my album and it meaning something to me but maybe meaning something else to them.
I think the first album cover was considered most provocative. I think that contributed a great deal.
If I was doing a musical, I would never listen to the cast album, because I wanted to do my version of something.
I've never listened to an album once I've finished it. All I hear is what I should've done different. I beat myself up over it.
The most frustrating thing for musicians who want to play stuff from the new album is when everyone goes out to buy a beer.
I always had an eye toward the stage for the story of Hamilton's life, but I began with the idea of a concept album, the way Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Evita' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar' were albums before they were musicals.
I wanted to make good records. But my problem is I've got a low boredom threshold, so I wanted it to look and sound different with each album, which is really tantamount to suicide, cause people lose it, they lose it - they say: 'I like that, and that's not this.'
'Drama' was put together quickly; there were a lot of intense, 16-hour days. Despite the pressure, it was a lot of fun, and the end result was an album I'm very proud of.
I didn't ever want to make a rap album. I considered it too limiting. Now that's exactly what I've gone and done.
I remembered their songs but I had never owned a Beatles album.
Bob Hurwitz, the president of Nonesuch, the company that releases my records, is a mentor. He taught me how to assemble a script to record an album.
With me being form the South, I wanted to make this album like a G Unit.
I'm curious to know how many newborn babies will be named Jeremih after my second album.
If I had come out with an album called 'Brendon Urie Does...' everyone would have been like, 'Who?' Even five albums in, I'm still faceless wherever I go, which is great.
I wrote 'Lights' a long, long time ago. And I expected it to be on the album, because it was - I wrote it with 'Biff' Stannard. And he wrote every single Spice Girls song and every single pop song of the 90s, basically. So I thought, you know, I was really lucky to work with him, but I didn't think it would be a big song for some reason.
My last album as J. Tillman, 'Singing Ax,' that was really a premeditated death rattle of the aesthetic precedent I had set. I realized I wasn't creating spontaneously; I was enforcing all these parameters. I was too self-loathing or something, and there was this obvious dissonance between my conversational voice and creative voice.
I did make a solo album in my house when I was there. And because I was just afraid of flying, I wouldn't promote it, and I wouldn't tour. Actually, it wasn't a very good album anyway - it got buried underneath the pits of Hell, I suppose.
One thing that has really influenced me with Bowie where I've taken an approach from him is how he changes from album to album and has always modified his sound and his appearance. I think that's an important thing.
When I want to put out an album, I want to write it. I want to be able to say that I wrote my album, and all this stuff is from me.
