Tony Visconti Quotes & Sayings

Despite a few really bad days we had quite a lot of fun making Low, especially when all the radical ideas were making sense and things were starting to click. — Tony Visconti

I keep reviewing my feelings about the supernatural. — Tony Visconti

Oh, it was so hard to leave Paris, just about my favorite city in the world. — Tony Visconti

I grew up to the sound of live music in our Brooklyn household. — Tony Visconti

Towards the end of the seventies pop was gaining the momentum and respectability was very high with groups like Yes and Queen who were making "classical" rock records. They were also bringing in big bucks. So the eighties became the "bottom line" decade. — Tony Visconti

You don't necessarily need expensive gear or giant budgets to reach an audience. — Tony Visconti

Today's recording techniques would have been regarded as science fiction forty years ago. — Tony Visconti

Every time I meet the CEO of a record label I tell them how they did it in the seventies because they want to know. I tell them, "Sign a hundred people! Throw it against the wall and see which ones stick!" And they frown and say, "Oh, we can't do that!" and they start mumbling about demographics and this and that. — Tony Visconti

The object is to make a great record and you have to do whatever it takes. — Tony Visconti

But some great records are are being made with today's technology and there are still great artists among us. Likewise there are artists today who are so reliant on modern technology, they wouldn't have emerged when recording was more organic. — Tony Visconti

Originally a record producer more or less hired a bunch of professionals to participate in a recording session, the performers and the technicians, and a music director was put in charge. That directly related to a film producer's job. — Tony Visconti

When I was five my parents bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I quickly learned how to play it with my father's guidance. Thereafter, my father regularly taught me all the good old fashioned songs. — Tony Visconti

I kind of liked the method of the seventies where they would throw a little bit of money at a hundred different groups - not millions of dollars per group, but, you know, a few thousand. Throw them in the studio, and if five of those groups came out with a hit record it would be money well spent. — Tony Visconti

My profession is called record production. — Tony Visconti

Since my teen years I was interested in martial arts. — Tony Visconti

Rock and Roll has certainly tried to take its toll on me. I'd rather not talk about my past excesses here, although some hardcore rockers might argue that those excesses were responsible for some great records, but I know which side I came out on. — Tony Visconti

I love Logic Audio and have been using it for years. All my track outputs used to come up on my old board in the same order as in the old Mac G4 - 1 through 32, came up as 1 through 32, for instance. — Tony Visconti

Any respectable artist has really given up on a label because the labels are still kidding themselves that the only way to go is to sign these big names like Lady Gaga and expect to make gazillions. — Tony Visconti

I like to work with people who have a sense of putting a song over, and can sing in tune, and with passion. With technology you can polish a turd, but there's still no button you can press for passion. — Tony Visconti

Marc Bolan had inspired so many people to pick up a guitar and join a band. — Tony Visconti

I could never have a better teacher in those days than my father. — Tony Visconti

The labels are not getting the returns they want from their PR. Plus, for every Taylor Swift there are a hundred thousand nobodies out there who are probably making better music. Self-releasing is the only way to go. — Tony Visconti

It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new. — Tony Visconti

I am not a creature of habit. — Tony Visconti

Now I know what it's like to be a rock star. No, I didn't sleep with 5 groupies at once. But I was interviewed about 45 times in 5 days in 3 cities. — Tony Visconti

Computers have virtually replaced tape recorders. — Tony Visconti

His name is David Bowie and he's nineteen. Would you like to meet him? — Tony Visconti

My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies, and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between. — Tony Visconti

The eighties turned the whole system upside down. They would sign three groups and give them five or ten million dollars each to make three records. Out of those three records maybe one would be a hit. The economy changed, and that's why the music changed. — Tony Visconti

I am flying back to New York as I write this. I will never forget these wonderful 35 days and I would go back to Copenhagen in a heartbeat to work there again. — Tony Visconti

My father loved people, children and pets. — Tony Visconti

Fortunately I own a vintage brain, and I am alive and well in the 21st century, still making records, still working at an intense pace and most of all, still having fun doing it. — Tony Visconti

No one else in our family was a professional musician so this took an enormous leap of faith on their part. — Tony Visconti

My father had a brilliant scholastic record in high school and was awarded a college scholarship. Unfortunately he had to turn it down so that he could continue to support his family. — Tony Visconti

We always started these albums as making demos, that went right on until Scary Monsters. — Tony Visconti

I think the whole obsession with old gear is completely overblown. You don't need old-fashioned gear to make a great-sounding record. You don't even need [analog] tape. — Tony Visconti

The ukulele was the first of many instruments they had bought for me. They got me a guitar when I was eleven, which my son Morgan uses until this day. They paid for 3 years of guitar lessons; they bought me a bass fiddle, which I still play. — Tony Visconti

Today a record producer is even more involved and is often the production's sole musician, one person playing all the instruments one-by-one. — Tony Visconti

I also mixed David Bowie's Young Americans album in 5.1 earlier this year and it will be available very soon. Even the original stereo mixes have been re-mastered and sound amazingly good, better than ever, in fact! — Tony Visconti

Pop was initially ignored as a moneymaker by the recording industry. In the seventies they were still relying on Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett for their big hits. You know, most of the budget for the record companies in those days went to the classical department - and those were big budget albums. — Tony Visconti

Finally, I would like to remind record companies that they have a cultural responsibility to give the buying public great music. Milking a trend to death is not contributing to culture and is ultimately not profitable. — Tony Visconti

In August most of Europe goes on holiday. — Tony Visconti

I make records with an open mind, I always have. — Tony Visconti

Some people do rely too much on technology. Look, technology is wonderful and I love it. When I was in the UK and I had hit records I would also have a high tax bill at the end of the year, and that would be the time to buy up all the technology - it was write offs. — Tony Visconti

You could make some great sounds with technology. That's what recording is all about. What happens in the studio is very magical, and should be, in my opinion. — Tony Visconti

Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica, mom sang in English and Italian, and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time. — Tony Visconti