Well, I think it's kind of interesting how the Osmond name has been really seen on both sides of the pendulum. There's obviously the bubblegum side, but for people who really know about music, it's clear on the other side. As a matter of fact, I find it quite ironic that Metallica used to cover 'Crazy Horses.' It was a cutting-edge album.
No band on 21st-century radio has mined pre-grunge hair-metal's sleaze like L.A.'s Buckcherry. So it makes poetic sense that they'd spend their sixth album tallying all seven deadly sins.
So we are not doing the traditional album, tour, album, tour, album, tour anymore. We're going to tour when we want to, regardless of whether we've got a record out.
The first time I really listened to an album and thought, 'This album is mine,' was Kanye's 'Late Registration.'
I knew the full 'Judy Garland Carnegie Hall' double album set at age 2. And then my mother wondered why I was gay. I was like, 'Are you nuts? You would make me get on the table to sing Judy Garland songs and you're upset?'
I love doing third albums. A group makes its first album, and then the record company rushes them into the studio to make their second album. After that, they go, 'Whoa, wait a second.' They get a little more confident. They step back and say, 'Okay, now we're gonna do it.'
The main thing with my shows is that I'm professional but not highly polished. I don't like people to think they're just seeing an album in person.
El Perro del Mar sort of accompanied my time at 'SNL.' To concentrate and focus, I would play the bass to one of her songs from her third album.
Most artists are going into the studio for a fixed period of time, and they say that's their album. I can't relate, because I've never made music in that way. I come from a culture of editing and remixing.
When the first album came out and I heard 'Do It Again' on the radio, that was the greatest thing that had ever happened. After that, it was all downhill.
I sequence during the entire recording process. The sequencing changes as I'm recording and as I'm listening. From when I'm, like, four songs in, I start trying to figure out which song should come after which. Which is important, and it changes as the album goes.
I actually have heard of acts who only do their new album, and don't do their hits. I've never been in that mind set.
Back in the day, the album was king in many ways. And, of course, we were very tied in with the birth of FM/college radio in the States, and what we were doing suited the format of those young radio stations.
Ringo Starr may not have much of a voice, but when he sang a song on a Beatle album, it had its own special charm.
Records have never really been my strong suit. I've always been a much better live act. I didn't understand the language of the studio. You sing differently in a studio. The language, the craft - it's just a whole different deal. I avoided the problem on my first record by doing a live album.
Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.
I kinda like the idea of having an album that's all me.
I ain't drop an album since I was 25. I rap way better. I've experienced way more.
I knew that 'Next Thing' was an angry album while I was making it. But I thought that it was angry the way that you get in a fight, not angry as a huge life change.
I think everybody knows my sound because I'm me, you know? But, on your fourth album, I think you've definitely gotta show growth because I definitely don't plan on being one of those cats that fade off. It's always about growing with me; I grew up over the years.
There have been many socially conscious concept albums. I wanted to make a 'social consciousness' concept album disguised as a country record.
I'm very interested in music, but I was not born musical. I honestly do think some people have the knack. I can't play an instrument. I'm a terrible singer. I'm not about to launch my album!
I actually had a week where I literally wrote four songs and all of them are on my album. But sometimes you'll go a week where you'll write songs and they never see the light of day. So that process takes a long time.
Every album, I'm worried that I'm a dork and a fraud - 'What if I can't sing anymore?' Then I stop thinking and start playing guitar, and I realize that it's okay to suck, and move forward.
When you record an album and it goes platinum... yeah, you're in the studio and you work hard for months, but it's not like your whole body hurts. Maybe you get a little hoarse and tired. But on 'Dancing With the Stars,' everything hurts.
I am neither such a great songwriter or such a great singer that the world must hear my album. There's just no point to make.
What I love about each album is the opportunity to expand on what we've done in the past - to push myself and the band creatively, vocally, and lyrically.
I write all year, and at the end of the year I put an album out. And if sucks, it sucks, and if it's good, it's good. I just let it lay where it lays. It doesn't stop from doing another one next year.
My favorite Luna disc is our third, 'Penthouse,' a sparkly, moody album that works from track one all the way to track 11. Tom Verlaine of Television and Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab make guest appearances. I am also fond of the final Luna album, 'Rendezvous.'
I don't do filler songs. I don't get them. They don't make any sense to me. Why would I literally waste my time on a song that doesn't hold up to the same standards as the other songs on the album? I won't play it live.
I can't believe Tina Turner actually was on the same stage. I can't believe I set foot on the same stage, and it's going to be an album, people are going to buy it, and it's going to be a video.
I really wanted people just to get to know Solange on my first album, just to establish Solange's sound, just to establish Solange's personality.
The whole 'I Told You,' there's nothing written. That was all out of the feeling. That's why the album is so incredible to me - it's all out of the heart; I didn't take time to pre-calculate it.
She is always going to be Diana Ross; she doesn't have to put out another album to keep at it. I'm not Diana, but people know me from the stuff that I've done. And that stuff, those videos, live forever and will continue to be discovered by a new users.
I treat every album as a new beginning, so I'm asking myself, 'What is pop music now? What are people consuming?' and I take these things into effect.
Apple, iTunes, and streaming services have made the single a more easy thing to access. What that's done has made the album as a collection of songs almost meaningless. But an album that has a concept or story or reason to be an album, if anything, has more meaning now than it ever has.
