In today's world, I probably would like to work with someone like Gaga.
If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing.
What do great artists do when you see a world around you that's in turmoil? Some of the best artists make you feel good (hah), they look to the future.
I think the hardest thing to overcome is judging yourself and being your own worst critic so to speak.
Art is something that opens up and enhances your emotions and that's what I like to think I'm doing.
After waiting four long years since the Lost CHIC Tapes were recovered, I'm finally putting out our first record. I'm like a child waiting for Christmas morning.
Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.
Almost all the producers I know and dig, like Quincy Jones or Brian Eno, are really musicians first. I'm a composer, an orchestrator, an arranger and a musician first. I know how to write and rewrite songs, and the genius is really in the rewriting.
You can't be afraid until you have no other option but to be afraid.
My concept is, until you absolutely know the plane is crashing, there's no reason to be afraid. All the turbulence in the world does not mean the plane is crashing. Once it's confirmed, then you can be afraid.
Bands always call me when they are in need of a boost and I come in and put them back on top.
Trust me, the only real way to understand 'Chic' is in highfalutin terms. Our chord progressions were based on European modal melodies. I made those early 'Chic' records to impress my jazz friends.
Everything about my life was culturally rich, and all the people I met sort of reinforced the wackiness that was normally inside of me. No one said, 'You can't do that,' until I got to real record companies, that is.
Any real record person knows that the number one most powerful marketing tool when it comes to music is repetition.
I really do love pop. I understand songwriting, I understand the business, and I'm not stuck in any one particular time period.
I'd probably be a super wealthy guy if I had sat around writing songs and getting them placed like everyone else I know. But I write songs about people or after I meet them and they're somewhat biographical - they're fiction but also non-fiction.
If I could live in one city and do every single thing I do there, I would choose Venice. You can't turn your head without seeing something amazing.
Artists don't come much cooler and well rounded than Lady Gaga. Love and respect.
I've had insomnia since I was five years old. I just don't require much sleep. I'm never tired.
I've been able to be a part of every movement in music over the last several decades. The only one that I haven't been involved in so much is hip-hop, which I chose not to be involved in because it felt like I would be what they called "perpetrating." It felt like hip-hop was so much of its own culture and that I was not part of that culture.
I would play hooky from school and spend all day in the movie theaters. Consequently, I learned satire in all its subtle forms.
I grew up in the era of the concept album. What I do now is pick up on singles, and they are their own complete stories; you don't necessarily have to hear the rest of the album because I don't think albums are created like that anymore. They get songs from all over the place.
With Sumthin Else Music Works, I wanted to spread the love and give newcomers a chance to make it because something that really helped me were all the people who had given me an opportunity when I was putting my career together.
You can fool a person into going to see a movie with a good trailer.
It feels like my job is to support people. I support great artists. When I worked with a symphony, I sat in the third chair, not the first chair.
