Quote

I get most of my inspiration from older records and older production styles, and that ends up rearing its head in the records that I make.

Some amazing records have this power to leave you with inspiration; you're left with the urge to write something. And some records are totally overwhelming, because they are so good, they burn the bridges behind them.

I think too many artists from my era tend to just stamp out a record.

I think that it can be said of a lot of artists, and myself included, that we made the same record over and over from the beginning.

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.

It sounds odd, but I was a singer and started writing songs, and I didn't have anything in mind. Maybe it crossed my mind that it would be cool to have a hit record and a career, but that was so out of reach that I don't think I thought about it that much.

When it all started, record companies - and there were many of them, and this was a good thing - were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music.

People are really set in their ways in how they produce records, and I was at least open enough to where I knew I wanted to do something totally different.

People love their favorite records. And I aspire to make a record someone might be able to love in that way.