Quotes

This page is dedicated to **quotes** by Shawn Reidy. You can use these quotes in pages you edit. Interview links for quote sourcing can be found at the bottom of the Wiki Sources page.

## Quotes

“The album is about a lot of different feelings and emotions... The political state of this country and the politics of being a performer including the concept of selling songs about mental illness, depression and things that are a little dark as a product and what that does to a person.” - Norman Transcript, 12/01/23

“I don’t feel like there are two artists who you can even compare to each other here. We’re all so different. Just like the people who opened the release concert, couldn’t be further apart in genre but the best part is that there’s no barriers. There’s never been a reason to be superficial here. Nothing to gain from pretending to be something you’re not. We just hear good music, enjoy it and support each other. That’s the way it always should be and it’s authentic because we’re lifting each other up instead of being in competition with each other.” - Norman Transcript, 12/01/23

"When I came up with the idea of the Secret Album it was always my idea to convince those guys at Gray Owl (Coffee) that usually closes at 6 p.m. to stay open late for me and have it called the Secret Release Show because it would be in an establishment that’s normally closed. Cool environment for that album which is gritty and rootsy as it is. There was a lot of respect and love from my opening artists. For that vision to come true after a year of thinking about it was super-special." - Norman Transcript, 12/01/23

“I think everyone knows this but it’s just so different when you put it into practice. You can really only be concerned about the things you can control. It’s generic advice but after doing this music for nine years and working with booking people across the country, collaborators and producers just let go of things I can’t control. If people are shady I just have to avoid that the best that I can. When you have scummy business people involved with art that’s supposed to make the world a more beautiful place, it’s hard to deal with some of the emotions when faced with that. The biggest surprise is that some people are just inherently bad. They don’t want to help you and actually get a high from making things worse. As much as I want to believe that people are inherently good, some aren’t. They just choose not to be. When I was younger I thought everyone would want to look out for each other. But what we have here in Oklahoma is amazingly good. It’s when you really get into the business side of things that things can get sketchy.” - Norman Transcript, 12/01/23

“It’s the persistence that comes from loving music so much that I’ll travel and play shows sleeping outside. Something I wouldn’t do if I wasn’t passionate about it.” - Norman Transcript, 12/01/23

"I grew up listening to a lot of the same stuff that everyone else did that comes on here. A lot Blink-182 and Sum-41 and My Chemical Romance and all that. That was a lot of my youth. Then just being a kid with an acoustic guitar that had just like had a lot of creative like fire inside him. I just wrote a lot of like really angsty brake up songs and like you know just really like emotional music that like, I can't even... I really don't even know. Like it was very like... I grew up in church too so it very inspired by like big anthemic worship music as well i feel like. And so when i got to be about nineteen, I really started to just hate all, everything I was doing. I was like, like I'm like in the same loop of just writing songs about girls and, you know, just these lame feelings I'm having. I just started to grow out of it. I was ready to completely just flip over. And I was just listening to a lot of rap music at the time is really the only reason I ended up here. That's just the thing I was really into around 2014. And then like also, you know, I want to have like music with a message and like a purpose. You know I had a lot to say. And hip-hop gives you a lot of room to say everything that you're feeling." - Beers with Bands #149 , 08/25/23

"I was a complete Outsider to it. And luckily like the people here that like have made hip-hop music in the hip-hop community and they welcomed me with open arms and everything. But I really was like completely outside of it for so long and I had to learn a lot of things about like what that culture is like and everything weaving into it maintaining my punk roots and everything. But uh so it was it was a little bumpy at first but then we we got to where we are now and I'm really happy with where I am today. And then like I feel like the the bridge and the connection point that I have between like DIY emo punk and rap and stuff. I'm really proud but I've done so far and like I feel like it's still just the beginning" - Beers with Bands #149, 08/25/23

"I just saw a write-up the other day that said that I like they're like that's really really like quietly put out this record. And I was like dang well I didn't do a good job then, did I? Like I do feel like I don't know there was something about here's the thing this album was written and finished uh maybe not finished a year ago but it was written and recorded a year ago. And so I I mixed it and mastered it and everything. And I just had this in my head that I needed to make the rollout for this album perfect because I was just really proud of it. And then um I put out an EP in November called um I'll be happy when I'm older. I actually wrote and recorded all those songs after that album. And I put that EP out as like a placeholder for this album so I just had a little more time to think about how I wanted to release it. And like I don't know long story short like the branding for this thing changed like a hundred times. I'm just like an independent artist I'm doing this all myself. I really wanted to figure out a way to really make this stick and uh I don't know like so that being said um the reception's been really good. I don't feel like anyone's finding out about through this record though like I hoped it would that's the only part that's so disappointing for me. And and like the where I what I landed on I think is great. I think the album cover is great. I think the star man is awesome. Like you know, I feel like everything all the businesses stuff with it like I feel like the aesthetic of the record is really good. But you know maybe there's a few things like not putting out like some of the videos I wanted to. Maybe my press releases just weren't as good this time around or something." - Beers with Bands #149, 08/25/23

## Sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://www.normantranscript.com/a-e-norman-s-worst-kept-secret/article\_d1822b86-8f9d-11ee-8e06-b718249fd39e.html
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr5kqHFa9TI&t=2715s [03:30-05:33]