A Quote by J. J. Cale

On the 'Escondido' album, I think it took us a month to make that album. — © J. J. Cale
On the 'Escondido' album, I think it took us a month to make that album.
The first review our band ever got - when I was 17 years old and we had just released our first EP, and this tiny little magazine wrote a review on it, and for that month, we were the best album of the month, and we were also the worst album of the month. We won best and worst album of the month in the same magazine.
I thought I'd go away and make one album, but it was extended. The album did so well, and they wanted another album. I was on a high. You make hay while the sun shines, and I was doing it, and you think about yourself; that's what you do.
The irony is that I don't think we took a step backwards to make 'Group Therapy'. I think we took a step forward because it's a lot more complicated to make that kind of album. I think that album was far more produced than 'American Apathy', and it had a lot more harmony vocals and lots of intricate parts musically speaking.
At the moment we're trying to keep what we've learnt. Because we learnt a terrific amount with 'Deep Purple In Rock,' it took six months to make that album: we think it paid off, really. I can honestly say that it's the first album we've been 100 percent satisfied with; it gave us a hell of a lot of confidence.
It was the 'Gaucho' album that finished us off. We had pursued an idea beyond the point where it was practical. That album took about two years, and we were working on it all of that time - all these endless tracking sessions involving different musicians. It took forever, and it was a very painful process.
The album for Fiddler really took off. I think it was a combination of John Williams and the score. It was a very classy big album.
Live we're a lot louder and noisier on the album. I think for the album we took a lot of time for the songwriting and we wanted to make good pop music, and I think there's plus and minuses to doing pop music and noise.
I read the reviews sometimes, but I don't let it really affect the next album because, for me, when I approach an album, it's usually coming to me pretty naturally. It's not like I set out, like, "Okay, I'm going to write an album this month." It's more like I'm just always writing songs and eventually I start to realize that a group of songs sort of fits together, and I go from there in putting together the album and themes and artwork and things like that.
The only album that I listen to upon recording a new one is my 'Cry' album, because sonically, I think it's my best album to date. But other than that, I've never listened to my records, ever.
I took a lot time to do the first album, and I was really happy about that album. I co-wrote the songs and it was a learning process. When I was working on that album I realized, for the first time, that I could write my own songs.
I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.
Our third album, 'Grown.' On that album, some of us had the opportunity to have hands-on experience into songwriting and production. The project itself taught the members how to create an album ourselves while grabbing guidance from the producers we worked with.
I think with the 'Get Weird' album, it was the hardest album we've ever made so we had no idea what sound we wanted to go for, we didn't really know what we wanted to write about... and so it took a lot of time.
It costs a lot of money to make an album in a studio in New York with a producer and musicians. I have to pay a publicist every month. I have to pay for mastering, production, the manufacturing of the discs. Then, to promote an album properly, you have to spend a lot of money.
I got a chance to have my dream come true, and I wanted to make sure I made the decision as to when I dropped my last album. If I don't feel like this album is an incredible piece of work, then I'm cool with the albums I've done. I don't have to put out another album.
A lot of people do talk about the demise of the album, but I still believe that if an artist tries hard to make a great album, people will buy it and listen to it as an album, rather than just a collection of random songs.
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