But when you hear the complete album, it gets dark, really straight-up rock, with some really intimate moments with just me and the piano. It's not completely me because there are parts of me that aren't on that song, that are on the album.
The more I go on in this career of making albums, writing songs and playing music, the more I think of each album as a movie. I really wanted to make a film, but making a film is much more expensive than making a record.
We've gone overboard on every Queen album. But that's Queen.
All I really wanted to do was make an album that was going to be just back to what I like to do... And it was a coincidence that these new bands, this new wave of bands, were doing Alice and Iggy rock.
It's a dream come true as I await the release of my debut single 'Krazy Konnection' with Salim Merchant and then my debut album!
Even though the album is an endangered species, can we try and make a coherent and good one, even if it's like making a horse and cart at a Nascar conference?
I've always said I can't tell sometimes that people even have an album out until I see them nominated for a Grammy. I think country gets dumped on across the board by the Grammys.
Downstairs in my house, I have a museum room. I keep all of my awards down there, and childhood photos, and even all the clothes I've worn on tour, in videos and on album covers.
Designers and musicians are primed to keep thinking forward. Once an album or collection launches, you can only think about doing the next one.
I picked and co-wrote the songs that if I was a guy who would be spending my hard-earned money buying an album I would want to hear.
My guitar heroes are Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck and people like that - so I've tried to make an album of Robert Johnson covers that, well, while not totally faithful for blues purists, is faithful for people like me that grew up with the '60s and the electric blues-rock versions of Johnson's songs.
How many pictures have you torn up because you hate them? What ends up in your scrapbook? The pictures where you look like a good guy and a good family man, and the children look adorable - and they're screaming the next minute. I've never seen a family album of screaming people.
I wanted to make an album that sounded like a release of inhibitions, really getting away from the idea that you have to be anything other than in that moment.
The first album was 99 percent hard core to show you I was the best rhymer in the world.
The second album was emotionally exhausting and my life felt like it had become very serious at a very young age.
The first jazz pianist I heard was Thelonious Monk. My father was listening to an album of his called 'Monk's Dream' almost every day from the time I was born.
Making an album is a long process, but it's a fun process.
I think one thing you could probably say for all my albums is that they're all pretty eclectic pop. There's always a little bit of urban influence, some dance, a little bit of country, singer-songwriter, pop-rock. I like everything! On every album you can find that.
I always felt if we were going in to do an album, there should already be a lot of structure already made up so we could get on with that and see what else happened.
Most of the time I like to start an album abroad, not at home, just to avoid the pressure, to not wake up and think, 'OK, it's the first of recording this album.' I like to avoid that.
Whenever I release a record, it's my record. It's not a selfish thought. I may work all year 'round for other people. So, finally, when I come out with my own album, it should be me with the creative help of other musicians.
As opposed to touring for three years and then going into the studio and writing an album, I think this record is representative of a lot of everyday people.
I'm pursuing soundtrack work in the southern California area and down the line I plan to make a moody, intense acoustic album. Not all acoustic, but an acoustic - oriented guitar record that I've already written most of the material for.
United Artists wanted to do records with me. I had no idea, what a rare thing that was... to make an album. And they put a guy with me working on songs, and I got busy with films. I just kind of let it slide. Isn't that amazing?
I want to put my vibe and my feel of music into an album and have people from different places around the world feel that and hear that.
For the second album I look forward to doing a lot of serious collaboration and taking the experiences I've had over this last year, good and bad, and working it into the album.
I made my new album 'Colour Me Free!' in a week with my own money.
We'll probably be working on another album in the next few months here.
We've been working on a new album, which is going to come out next spring, which is very different, a change of style for us - it's going to be almost like rock music.
We were contracted to make a soundtrack album but there really wasn't enough new material in the movie to make a new record that I thought was interesting.
Because I'm not in a record deal, I don't have to operate in an album format.
I feel that my playing on the first album was probably some of my best.
Miles Davis was a part of my life from 1947 on. I was born in 1941 and I first heard him in 1947 on a 78 rpm. And then I followed his career, starting with his first solo album in 1951. He was an icon and inspiration and a mentor to me.
I lost my dad two years ago to cancer, and before he died, I asked him to write 'Daddy's Little Girl' on a piece of paper for me. I told him it was for an album. He practiced and practiced and then sent it to me, and I had it tattooed onto my wrist and surprised him with it. He cried when he saw it, happy tears. This way I always carry him with me.
I got a chance to have my dream come true, and I wanted to make sure I made the decision as to when I dropped my last album. If I don't feel like this album is an incredible piece of work, then I'm cool with the albums I've done. I don't have to put out another album.
A family's photograph album is generally about the extended family and, often, is all that remains of it.
