A Quote by Steve Earle

I'm trying to make records where people don't feel cheated. Nashville has been guilty of insulting the Country Music audience for years and years. — © Steve Earle
I'm trying to make records where people don't feel cheated. Nashville has been guilty of insulting the Country Music audience for years and years.
In 1985, I went to work for MTM Records, Mary Tyler Moore's Nashville record label, and stayed three years. After that, I spent two years as an independent promoter, then worked for MCA Nashville Records, DreamWorks Nashville, and Universal Music Nashville.
I don't make as many records as other people do because I prefer the live side of it - and my records are so big that they keep me touring for years upon years and years.
... coming to a place like Nashville, which is just music music music, it's always been such an influence on me. And there are so many interesting songwriters out there, and it's such a crazy business and so many people are trying to do it, and it's all right there in Nashville.
People have been trying to make a two-hour feature film of 'Outlander' for years and years and years.
I was blessed. I had a great childhood and great parents that loved music and family. I moved from England when I was almost 18 and been on my own ever since and have been trying to make a living in the music business for the past twelve years. A lot of people say I'm an overnight success, but it's an overnight success that's been twelve years in the making.
People get caught up in making music with a trend. You're time stamping your music and I'm guilty of it to. But, I want to make music where five, ten years from now it brought back a memory or brought an emotion out of them they want to feel.
As far as my single selections, over the years it's been a very essential part of my survival tactic, but I have no problem being able to jump on records with whoever people think is the rawest rapper in the game or number one or King or whatever they wanna name themselves, to be honest with you. It doesn't affect me, 'cause that's what I come from; I'm comfortable in that zone. But I don't wanna make hood music, I don't wanna make street music, I want to make world music, global music, international music.
When I came to Nashville, I was sort of experimenting with a new identity, experimenting with the country world and country writers. I realized I needed to take a step back from that, to be true to some of the music I've been doing over the years and to put that into the world before I move forward and redefine myself again.
I've looked at pictures that my mom has of me, from when I was four years old at the turntable. I'm there, reaching up to play the records. I feel like I was bred to do what I do. I've been into music, and listening to music and critiquing it, my whole life.
What I've been trying to do for years is to get the music played on a station other than jazz stations, you know, to expand the audience.
Music leaves such a big impression. I always wondered, 'Man, if I grew up in Nashville, would I be making Country records now?' I honestly feel like Chicago had such a big impact on me.
My dream many years ago would've been to continue to write and record songs in record/album form for years to come, but now records aren't what they were then - and so it doesn't actually feel very good to make a record of songs.
So many people have gone to music production schools for years and years, and they've wanted this their whole entire life, and part of me feels like I've kind of cheated that a bit because I'm not grade A on piano, and I don't know a lot about production. But I do what I do.
I've been doing it since I was prepubescent when I loved to scratch records and play good music. As it happens, you know I sort of fell into the mix. I really feel like I played a role in bringing dance music to America years ago.
There are certain records from the 80s and early 90s that you love because the songs are great, but you don't go to them as an example of great production. Over the last 20 years, myself and a lot of other musicians my age have tried to discover things in 50s, 60s, and 70s recording techniques that were lost or discarded. We've all been trying to crack this code. It's been an important period in the last 15 years, reclaiming some of those lost approaches to making records.
I'm just trying to make my favorite music. That's how I work; I just do things based on the way they feel to me. I want to be touched by the music I'm making. Luckily, other people have shared that response to my work over the years.
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