Top 86 Quotes & Sayings by Dawn Richard

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Dawn Richard.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Dawn Richard

Dawn Angeliqué Richard is an American singer. She started her career after auditioning for Making the Band 3 in 2004. During this time, Richard became a member of girl band Danity Kane, from 2005 to 2009, and reformed the group with 3 of the original 5 members in late 2013. In 2009, Richard joined the duo Dirty Money with fellow singer-songwriter Kalenna Harper, and label boss Sean "Diddy" Combs to form Diddy – Dirty Money. With the group, they released the highly successful album Last Train to Paris, as well as two additional mixtapes before their disbandment in 2012.

When I look half naked on stage, it's not because I'm trying to be sexy but because I am dancing and want to be mobile enough to move.
When my dad went to college to get his master's from Loyola, he was playing Debussy and Chopin and Beethoven. But he played all that New Orleans stuff, too. I would go with my dad to gigs, pick up the piano and the speakers, and I would be like his roadie.
My grandmother had a Ph.D in library science, so I grew up in a library, and I would appreciate those books and the smell of them and how they'd have these series, and it was cool to me. I always felt like, if I had an opportunity, I'd create an album that felt like a series.
I just want to be a storyteller, and I think the way to do that is by your lyrics, by your visuals, by your choreography, by your dance. It's imperative as an artist. — © Dawn Richard
I just want to be a storyteller, and I think the way to do that is by your lyrics, by your visuals, by your choreography, by your dance. It's imperative as an artist.
When I get inspired, I give out free music. If you look at my track record from the beginning, that's always what I've done. I've never changed.
Be exactly who you are. You can fit in any space you see yourself in. Be fearless.
Fashion is my lover on the side, but I am married to music.
My dad was a teacher. He has a Masters in music. He taught elementary school, and he played gigs his whole life, and we lived good.
I started to write my own stories, like small novels, and those novels became poems, and after poems, they became lyrics, and song came from that.
The black geeks of the world, we feel like we don't have a home.
Anything that creates fear, I want to conquer it.
I really got back to my New Orleans roots - my grandfather played with Fats Domino. We had to leave after Katrina, but I feel like, spiritually, I'm back there.
I've grown so much in the music industry. From 'GoldenHeart,' it was just about me and the music and me in this dream. With 'BlackHeart,' its more about me and who I am and what role I play in my own life and in the business.
My music speaks of warriors. It speaks of women being kings and this sense of pride of being more, even though you have less. — © Dawn Richard
My music speaks of warriors. It speaks of women being kings and this sense of pride of being more, even though you have less.
Songwriting was my own journey. I never fit in with structure in songwriting.
I do not have a history in set design. I have a history in art. I draw. But I learned set design when I couldn't afford to have a team and I didn't want to look like I was indie. I wanted to give fans the visual.
Instagram is just something I like to do. I feel it's the best way to portray who you are.
I had always had an affinity for series in literature, and I thought it would be really cool to incorporate what I loved about books into the story of music, to pile it together.
'Armor On' explains why I needed armor in the first place. Sonically, you'll hear this battle of, 'I love you, no I don't. I love you, I hate you.' That's what you'll feel. You see the story kind of fight against itself.
People want to peg you as alternative R&B when they hear soul or see the color of your skin. It's comfortable when people see artists of color or artists that come from a different country to put that brand on us. It's just not as linear as that.
My father's music is all I remember from my childhood.
I'm okay with being the oddball.
There's always going to be a fight between mainstream and underground because the mainstream is a very small bubble, and the underground scene is a very small bubble, and they both see themselves as secret societies. But I never saw it that way. I always thought music was open to all things.
I'd only do a deal with a label if it allowed me to still be indie and have that indie mentality. I have to have creative control.
I've had two platinum albums. I have worked with thousands of people. But the most rewarding feeling is to see people on Twitter say, 'Do you see what Dawn and them are doing? They are number one.' It's the most rewarding feeling because of all the tears, all the bad stuff, and the people that said I couldn't do it.
'Redemption' is about understanding myself and not worrying about my relationship with the industry.
I would describe my personal style as putting Twiggy and Yoko Ono together. It is hobo with no rules.
I always treat shows as though they could belong on either platform. I always design it for the bigger stage, but I love it on the smaller stage.
Dreams rise like the sun and set like the sun: One minute, it is high and bright; the next minute, you might lose it.
I like being in charge. I like being able to control my own destiny and ideas.
Growing up, my parents were Roman Catholic - strict Catholics - from New Orleans. I understood the idea in the principle of spirituality. I noticed it in the stories that I read. The Trinity was something that was brought up consistently: the power of three. Things happened in threes, and I thought that was brilliant.
Besides music, I was all school, school, school. And softball. I played the game since I was four, and I wanted to go to the Olympics for softball. I got a full scholarship through softball.
I don't take myself too seriously.
I write for myself. It's therapy.
Originally, I was set on going to Hawaii Pacific University. We visited the campus in Hawaii. I was gonna be a Rainbow Warrior. I was gonna play softball. I was gonna major in marine biology. Everything was set. Then my dad was like, 'So you're not gonna do music? If you do go to Hawaii, there's no studios there, baby girl.'
It's a lot of work being an indie artist, but it's worth it.
I wanted to make an album that sounded like a release of inhibitions, really getting away from the idea that you have to be anything other than in that moment.
To create and do something no one else has done before - that feeling beats anything else I've felt.
There is a thing about women that needs to be understood. We don't sit well with being put in a certain place. — © Dawn Richard
There is a thing about women that needs to be understood. We don't sit well with being put in a certain place.
'Goldenheart' is like a modern-day Joan of Arc. Think of it like medieval times-cum-2045 or Lancelot and Guinevere in 3025. It's a new version of these battles - age-old stories for the now.
Hair pieces and head dresses have always been something that's been part of my culture.
'The Red Era' is for everybody. Every gay, every fluid, every black, every white.
I don't really feel there's rules in my everyday wear. I kind of do whatever the hell I want to do.
I'm big on showing people versatility. I'm constantly trying to push myself to break barriers and the idea that we have to stay in one lane.
I want to get up and celebrate something - and why not celebrate being a woman?
'Redemption' sounds like a jubilee. Like a second line, if you will.
I couldn't do a record without knowing I'll translate it into something visual.
I believe I am standing firm as a black woman in this industry in a time that it is hard as an artist period.
I always knew who I was, but everyone else wanted to me to be their 'idea' of the 'right' artist. At times, I even believed them. — © Dawn Richard
I always knew who I was, but everyone else wanted to me to be their 'idea' of the 'right' artist. At times, I even believed them.
Just as much as you need the people who love you, you need the people who doubt you - to prove them wrong.
I'm not mainstream. You gotta find me.
I can be a little messy and wild and carefree with my creativity as a solo artist. In a group, there's a certain structure, and everyone has a part to play, and being a solo artist, I can do as I please.
'Blackheart' is purely falling into the electronic world and pushing the envelope.
Music and dance is part of everything in New Orleans. So I grew up appreciating it all.
I promised myself that I wouldn't be afraid to be who I was when I chose to do this music thing.
I wake up every day in a different headspace, so on any given day, my hairstyle will change.
You have to put time into the art to do it, and you have to know that what you'll get out of it is not a financial or a fame thing. It'll just be the pleasure of being an artist. And I'm cool with that.
I love what a women embodies. I love our bodies; I love the way we communicate with our bodies. I love the way dance creates movement. It's art in motion.
I think, my entire life, I was a bit different. And I didn't think I was different; I just kinda always stuck out.
I did write more mainstream stuff with DK. But you could always tell the records that I wrote in contrast with everybody else's because the format was a bit different. The harmonies were used in a different type of way. Way more metaphors in the mix.
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