John Waite – HuffPost 6.4.14

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

John Waite: I would just go your own way! Steve Marriott once said, and I may have used this as my answer twice now, “The first idea you have is the best one.” There are so many people involved in making a record when you’re at a record label and the money is so tight, they’re so scared of releasing anything that’s cutting edge that everything’s like three minutes and everything’s aimed at a demographic, as they say. That doesn’t mean–when you look back to Tracy Champman doing “Fast Car” somebody, somewhere at a record company saw her and went, “She’s the real deal.” And then they backed it up with a tremendous video because they understood how deeply she felt all of that and how real she was so they so they gave her the video too. There was nobody saying, “Put this dress on and sing about this.” It’s a threatened business. Artists are much, much bigger than the business. People that chase after artists, that’s what they’re meant to do, but the artist is going to be the uncompromising guy on the end like Dylan or somebody who just changes the world with three chords and starts singing something. It’s like that great moment in Llewyn Davis movie where he’s singing that song to the agent, and then he stops playing the guitar and he sings the rest of the song with just his voice and it’s heartbreaking and you think you’ve got this reaction out of F. Murray Abraham and then he says, “I don’t see any money in it.” It’s just a great moment, but that’s the world.

MR: What ever’s going to happen to that level of talent?

JW: It will be okay. It’s always going to be okay. There’s always going to be somebody who takes a step to the left and then everybody follows them. It just takes that one percent. It’s more fun to go your own way anyway. I think once you get on the wheel you’re kind of sunk. I’m very positive about music, I think it’s a beautiful thing and it’s always going to be constant and people are going to want quality. I guess all kids that want to be in the music business, there’s going to be a percentage that are going to be brilliant, but everybody seems to be in it at the moment.