About six months ago, I listened to Siamese Dream. That was the first time I'd ever really heard my own album, because I had separated from the experience of making the record. And it really moved me. It made me cry, it's so beautiful.
Actually, I was having dinner with Michael [Stipe, of R.E.M.] when our second album went platinum, which up until that point was the highest success we'd ever had. And he turned to me during dinner and said, 'Welcome to the deep waters, kid.' I'll never forget that.
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.
Someone told me once that Lucinda Williams takes six years between albums, and that's what stuck to me; it's like, you really are a factory. You don't do things to make them, on your own time.
You just want to go back to those 70s albums. Even a lot of the 90s indie records were still done on tape, and you hear the difference.
So when a music artist puts an album out that can only be streamed, not downloaded, what happens? In Kanye West's case, apparently it gets pirated a lot.
I love Rihanna's new album, Skrillex, and Norah Jones. They're are all very different, but I love any rock, pop, and jazz.
But I always wanted to do a theatrical stuff. But when you're in a metal band of course you're limited because five people in the band, um, you've got no keyboards... you're limited. And I wanted... to go over-the-top, you know. Literally. I wanted to make an album that people would either hate or love.
I try to retire jokes as soon as I can once I put them on an album. But I can't think of anything I just stopped doing for no reason.
The people I chose to work with me on this album are there because I have a personal relationship with them.
I knew that when it came time for me to finally make my own album, it wasnt going to be about being a jock. It had to be more personal and intimate.
Doing an album is like having a business card; to show people what you do. The most important thing to me is the stage. I do albums because I love the stage.
In the music industry, it's pretty easy to make an album just because you want to keep going, like, 'This is the formula.' But the formula is your life. You have to live your life and you have to live it well - that's the formula.
If you're 20 years old, you've grown up without buying albums.
Second films are, you know, like 'difficult second albums', so it's a tricky position to be in but I think he's made a highly accomplished film.
I hope that the next time you go to a concert, the band doesn't play the song you wanna hear! And instead, they just play songs off their new album!
My favorite time in music is probably 1970-75. Still Bill by Bill Withers, Harvest by Neil Young, John Prine's first album, James Taylor's One Man Dog-I hope I can bring the same sort of spirit I hear on those records.
Every album is just a greatest hits of whatever songs are on a pile when I go in to make a record.
I think making an album is a difficult thing.
You don't get bored making an album.
Everyone was saying, "Oh, Chumbawamba, they're crap, can't get arrested." But we had absolute faith in what we were doing, so we put our heads down and made the best album we possibly could. Then we got a deal based on the final product.
We play it differently now. If we did the album now it would be different.
I'm releasing a single. It's called 'Live it Up.' It was based on my Euro trip. I only write my own music. I don't let other people write it at all. So I've been working on that a lot. There's three singles coming out. The producer of The Fray who did their double-platinum album 'How to Save a Life,' I'm working with him. He's producing me.
My mother kept asking me, "When are you going to do a gospel album?" And I've always wanted to do a gospel album. Everybody was going on about it, so mom started hounding me more.
As long as I'm still able to have a hit on the radio and sell a few albums and some tickets, I don't see that it would be worth retiring.
