Solo Artist Quotes

When you're a solo artist and you have a band on tour you have to pay the band some salary. You don't realise the expenses, the way they add up SO quickly. But thank god I'm not a money person. So it doesn't really bug me at all, I mean it's more comical to me ... ~ Marnie Stern

I really wasn't planning on being a solo artist. ~ Juicy J

I think it would be nice to sell 15 million albums as a solo artist. I'd have to deal with all the repercussions of that, but that wouldn't be too bad. ~ Glenn Frey

I hate the solo artist aspect of rock-'n'-roll. I don't have enough personality or charisma to be a solo star. ~ Dave Grohl

I don't have to ask anyone's permission to do anything. It's nice not have to get decisions out of three, sometimes four people, which can be like pulling teeth. So the amount of control that I have over what I'm doing is better for me as a solo artist. ~ Graham Nash

My art and my self-expression in any form has always been an attempt towards sincerity, honesty, and empathy for others. For a multitude of reasons both professional and personal I no longer feel that this is possible within [Crystal Castles]. Although this is the end of the band, I hope my fans will embrace me as a solo artist in the same way they have embraced Crystal Castles. ~ Alice Glass

That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That's the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That's you on the cover. If it sucks, it's your fault. ~ Jenny Lewis

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. ~ Natalie Maines

I think I would prefer to partner with someone once I've established what I actually am trying to do as a solo artist with my actual name. ~ Michelle Chamuel

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. ~ Tommy Shaw

I've been a solo artist for a year now, and I think I should start thinking about the future now. Every spare time I get, I want to be in the studio and work on music for 2015. It's a lot of work. ~ Shane Filan

Everything that Eddie has said about me is the total opposite of what really happened. Eddie says I wanted to be a solo artist. No, Eddie wanted to be a solo artist. ~ Sammy Hagar

Each individual's success as a solo artist is pretty much a win for the whole team. ~ Frank Ocean

I grew up when the whole Motown thing was huge. The charts in those days were dominated by groups more than solo artists at one point. ~ Simon Cowell

Unique is what one person does alone. What is not unique is what others have to collaborate on. ~ Shannon L. Alder

I never really followed the traditional route when it comes to what people probably expect as a solo artist goes, but that's just me. It's my own creative output and it's my expression. ~ Nick Carter

I think I'll continue to work as a solo artist. ~ Alvin Lee

I'm competitive with anyone who writes a good song - I don't care if it's a band or solo artist or whoever. ~ Chris Martin

Working as a solo artist has given me a confidence that I didn't have with Blondie. ~ Debbie Harry

The only thing that's better in a group versus being by yourself is the companionship. You have to do a lot of thing by yourself as a solo artist. But it's cool. It's worth it. ~ Tinashe

I think there is more creative freedom as a solo artist by far because you might get a group push back on an idea because it's more of a democratic process. You can sink or swim on your own ideas on a solo project. ~ Myka 9

I cannot exist as a solo artist. ~ Courtney Love

But in my mind I've always been a solo artist- I've just been working with a lot of great people like Kanye and Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. ~ John Legend

I always saw myself as a singer-songwriter, a solo-artist, that's why working with other artists was never satisfying for me. ~ John Legend

For me as a solo artist, I never want to be a nostalgia act. ~ Bret Michaels

I wish I started out as a solo artist. ~ Darlene Love

The expectation on me as a solo artist is very different to the audience's expectation of a Pink Floyd show. ~ David Gilmour

I'm very honest about the things I struggle with and I need to work on to survive as a solo artist. ~ Aubrey O'Day

I never imagined I'd be a solo artist. And now I couldn't imagine being part of a group. ~ Morrissey

I've never really had the desire to be a front person or a solo artist. I don't really create that much of a hierarchy in my mind. ~ Adam Schlesinger

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word art ~ Bret Easton Ellis

I've known the glory of the stage and the glory of the spotlight. I still crave it. I want to be on 'American Bandstand' and 'Soul Train' as a solo artist. As a producer, songwriter and arranger, I help other artists say what they want to say. But on my records, I say what I want to say. ~ Narada Michael Walden

I didn't see any difference between being a photographer or being an artist. I didn't make those boundaries. If someone wants to think it's art, that's great, but I'll let history decide. ~ David LaChapelle

The big tradition, I think, is unity. And I have that in mind; and with that, you know, you could break all the traditions- all the other so-called rules, because they are stylistic.. and most are not true. As long as the marks are related to one another, there is unity. Unity in the work itself depends on unity of the artist's vision. ~ Roy Lichtenstein

When an artist is in the strict sense working, he of course takes into account the existing tastes, interests and capacity of his audience. These no less than the language , the marble, the paint, are part of his aw material.; to be used, tamed, sublimated, not ignored or defied. Haughty indifference to them is not genius, it is laziness and incompetence. ~ C.S. Lewis

I am not an actress. I am a mistress of disguise. Acting happens to be one of the perks ~ Janna Cachola

The artist ... standing in the position of mediator between the world of his experience and the world of his dreams - 'a mediator, consequently gifted with twin faculties, a selective faculty and a reproductive faculty.' To equate these faculties was the secret of artistic success. ~ James Joyce

Great artists have wild and untamed reality. ~ Talismanist Giebra

Any guitar solo should reflect the music that it's soloing over and not just be existing in its own sort of little world. ~ John Frusciante

The biggest challenge for any craft person or artist is to accept the constraints of their medium and make something beautiful despite them. That's kind of fun, actually. ~ Ayelet Waldman

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece. ~ Pope John Paul II

When I was a kid just starting out on the radio, I would always watch people. And I'd see the interest they'd have in trying to get a photo with an artist or get a ticket stub signed. I guess, to me, that's the ultimate thing - to know that what you've done is important enough to other people that they want to take a picture with you. ~ Eddie Trunk

Most artists wont congratulate other artist for winning because they suffer from it should have been me syndrome ~ De Philosopher DJ Kyos

To get from the tangible to the intangible (which mature artists in any medium claim as part of their task) a paradox of some kind has frequently been helpful. For the photographer to free himself of the tyranny of the visual facts upon which he is utterly dependent, a paradox is the only possible tool. And the talisman paradox for unique photography is to work "the mirror with a memory" as if it were a mirage, and the camera is a metamorphosing machine, and the photograph as if it were a metaphor ... . Once freed of the tyranny of surfaces and textures, substance and form [the photographer] can use the same to pursue poetic truth" (Minor White, Newhall, 281). ~ Minor White

The artist's knowledge of his own creative nature is often unconscious; he pursues his mysterious way of life in a strange innocence. ~ Dorothy L. Sayers

I do think you get lonelier and lonelier being an artist as you get older. ~ Gary Hume

In the end, I feel that one has to have a bit of neurosis to go on being an artist. A balanced human seldom produces art. It's that imbalance which impels us. I often think that all I want to do now is to avoid suicide, accidental or otherwise. Other than that, I think living on the edge is what drives my work and me beyond a certain point. The artist lives with anxiety. When you finally reach a plateau of achievement, there comes a new anxiety - the hunger to push on still further. That angst is what makes you go forward. ~ Beverly Pepper

The artist must prophesy not in the sense that he foretells things to come, but in the sense that he tells his audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own hearts ~ Robin G. Collingwood

There are contemporary artists that I hate with all my heart. These are provocateurs that are without feeling. Where is the real emotion? ~ Paolo Sorrentino

I wonder if the artist ever lives his life
he is so busy recreating it. ~ Anne Sexton

Well, then you're a moody artist." Under her breath, she added, "You're practically a girl. ~ S.C. Stephens

Acting ... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick? ~ Elia Kazan

The fans get to see you, and you can do great by your record if you have a great performance or a great night there. That's all part of the business. But at their core, awards shows are not really a sincere thing. For a lot of years, the artists had to pay to play their own set. ~ Jay-Z

AN ARTIST'S PRAYER
O Great Creator,
We are gathered together in your name
That we may be of greater service to you
And to our fellows.
We offer ourselves to you as instruments.
We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.
We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know you created us and that creativity
Is your nature and our own.
We ask you to unfold our lives
According to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late
And that we are not too small or too flawed
To be healed -
By you and through each other - and made whole.
Help us to love one another,
To nurture each other's unfolding,
To encourage each other's growth,
And understand each other's fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone,
That we are loved and lovable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you. ~ Julia Cameron

When she started with the first empty canvas, she didn't know what she was going to paint, she just let her paint brushes glide and they religiously followed the trajectory of her angst; the choice of colours and the strokes, they were all a reflection of what was going through her mind. The reds were the embers within her that refused to die. The blues were the rare instances when she was spent by her grief. The blacks were her moments of absolute weakness, the colour of the bottomless pit within her that she had plunged into, falling through and through.
The brush strokes moved around blank canvases like snakes with fangs of elixir that filled her scars with a deluge of hope and a gale of faith in herself. The colours spoke to her in whispers, narrating their own tale while she poured out hers to them. They allowed her to channel her life through them. They listened. They cared. They laughed. They cried. They reassured her that there was life waiting ahead, staring at her past, urging her forward with eager arms. And Preeti rushed into them with her brush in hand that rose along with her and fell along with her. ~ Faraaz Kazi

I think the music business is changing. Artists that don't want to tour and just want to collect royalty checks and stay home are not going to be able to do that. ~ Steve Earle

We designers, we don't work in a vacuum. We need business people. We are not the fine artists we are often confused with. ~ Dieter Rams

Whatever the scientists may come up with, writers and artists will continue to portray altered mental states, simply because few aspects of our nature fascinate people so much. The so-called mad person will always represent a possible future for every member of the audience - who knows when such a malady may strike? ~ Margaret Atwood

I identify as being an independent artist. I think people often forget that Indie is actually short for independent. For me, the word has a meaning more than what it connotes from an industry standpoint. ~ Mirah

A red nose is the clown's mask and my moustache is mine. ~ Nuno Roque

The disadvantages and dangers of the author's calling are offset by an advantage so great as to make all its difficulties, disappointments, and maybe hardships, unimportant ... Nothing befalls him that he cannot transmute into a stanza, a song, or a story, and having done this, be rid of it. The artist is the only free man. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Many artists give up after a while. ~ Angie Stone

As an artist I write about the world I want to live in. And as a musician and someone who is in the public eye, I think you have this responsibility to influence people. So I try influence people to live from their heart and make conscious decisions , and I try just inspire people to make positive change. That's purely the reason I do it. I want to see the world get better, you know? ~ Brett Dennen

A figure skater is not just a figure skater who does great jumps. He is an artist on ice. ~ Alexei Yagudin

The artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different forms of one and the same longing and bliss. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

It's disgusting. Why would people idolize someone who doesn't do anything and saying you're a model/photographer with a digital camera and photoshop does not count as an artist. ~ Ryan Ross

Truth exists; only lies are invented. ~ Georges Braque

Relationships are hard regardless! But I think they feed the artist: relationships, children, life, family - it all feeds the artist. Loss. Joy. Sacrifice. ~ Kathy Baker

'Jazz Artist of the Century' would have to be a distinctive soloist and ensemble player, a composer, an arranger, a bandleader, and a driver; would have to span all the genres and periods of jazz; would have to have run her own label; [would] possess a deep spirituality, with grace and a sense of humor; and would have to have succeeded against all odds. Who else? Mary Lou Williams. ~ Dave Douglas

I always thought that it was every performer's dream. That's the epitome of being an artist, being able to express song, dance and acting in a live theatre setting and really connecting with an audience on that level. ~ Deborah Cox