Now that I'm staring down the barrel of the last act of my life, I'm less excited about control and solo effort, and I resent the way the business aspects interfere with my space for creative writing.
Sometimes I feel like I'm taking on a role when I'm writing a song, and it doesn't always have to be true. I'm not sitting in my room crying with my guitar, writing a slow solo about a depressing breakup; that's not me.
My first solo was in church when I was five.
I'm not closing the door on my solo career, but with 5th Story, if the public demand is there, then I'll continue to work with the band. If not, we'll all go our separate ways again.
I like collaboration because, first of all, I'm good at writing lyrics. I don't know how to make beats. I don't play instruments. I'm not a good singer. So even when you see a solo album of mine, it's still a collaboration.
I didn't make my first solo record until 1981 so I don't have any 60's or 70's recordings but I am working on a large boxed set called DUST to be released next year, the 20th anniversary of my first solo record.
I remember in the early days when we played six nights a week for a month and I was doing my long drum solo every night. My hands were covered in blisters.
I knew I didn't want to make a country record just because that's not really what I would have ever made as a solo artist.
Around New York, our group had become known as 'Dee Dee and her girls' because we were used on everything, so going out on a solo career wasn't as much a big deal to me.
Mick Jagger can't even make a successful solo album, and the Stones are the biggest rock group that ever was.
I'd done three solo albums in a row, and that's quite narcissistic.
You know, I'm the 1st black solo MC from Detroit. I didn't do the 50 Cent sales but hey... I got a long career, I'm still young and I'm trying to bring really good music.
As far as my solo record, I don't want a gold record or anything, I'm happy to be small and to have the people appreciate the music who really like me for being me.
I've actually thought very little about solo work up until just very recently.
Rilo Kiley was a rock band, so I wanted my solo records to feel different.
If I play anything that sounds like a solo, it's gonna sound like a lyric.
I knew I was destined to be a rock star. I just knew it, like I've always had the power of foresight. I feel right now exactly the way I felt after I finished mixing my first solo album 'New York Groove'.
It's a huge responsibility being a solo act.
Wherever I went, crowds appeared again, and I started making solo albums for the first time in my career.
Overall, we had about 50 meetings where the brothers would say that I couldn't do any solo records, I couldn't write for other people, I couldn't do this and I couldn't do that. These guys were trying to nail my feet to the ground.
I see myself as a composer who plays music and likes to play with other people, and not just as a solo artist.
I think the musicians I play with solo do a certain thing that the musicians we play with with the Indigo Girls don't do. It's just a different thing. And it sort of steers my writing in some ways.
I remember a song I did called 'If the Good Die Young' - I wanted to have a lead guitar solo on there, and the label flipped out! It was too rock and roll. They made us go back and put fiddle on the solo.
It's really important to be free and be open and honest about the things you want to do. Just 'cause you want to make a solo record or another record with another band, it doesn't have to be an insult or a slight to the band you've been with for a long time.
I start from one point and go as far as possible. But, unfortunately, I never lose my way. I 'localize,' which is to say that I think always in a given space. I rarely think of the whole of a solo, and only very briefly. I always return to the small part of the solo that I was in the process of playing.
I love the idea of stepping out of the band situation into a solo world with no boundaries, no expectations, where nothing is out of bounds.
I have a solo deal with Columbia Records. So it's about, do I want to release an album, when can we do it, what kind of album should it be, how should it be released and marketed and what's the right timing? Do I have time to do it? It's all about questions.
I love to play a character. If I'm playing Cinderella or Aurora in 'Sleeping Beauty' or something like that, then I enjoy classical a lot. But to do just a two-minute solo, purely to show classical aesthetic, is not my favorite thing to do.
I think anything we do outside of Gym Class Heroes still falls under the Gym Class Heroes umbrella. There's really no method to the madness. With Gym Class, it's more of a democratic process, and when I'm working on solo stuff, it's just me, either working with producers or sitting in a room by myself. They balance and complement each other.
As a solo artist, I just felt cemented in front of the mike stand. There was very little time to play with the audience and be a band member.
Now that I'm coming out with my own record people can see I'm a solo artist.
The only time it dominates is during a solo, or when we play a low blues and I put figures in behind Eric's vocals. There's never any real problem fitting guitar and organ together.
I'll play with a hundred pieces or do a solo job.
This is a Solo Flight, but I want aviation enthusiasts and adventurers everywhere to join me in the endeavour.
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.
I can never understand how a solo could ever be 'uncool.' Play something good, and it won't be uncool, you know?
