In case you didn’t hear, the Purple One descended on Paris last week for Fashion Week events, which included appearances at the Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel runway shows, a Fendi party, two surprise concerts in one day at the Grand Palais, and appearing in this surreal photo with Katy Perry and Russell Brand.
Prince also made time for a very rare hour-long press conference with the French media. The whole video and/or transcription isn’t available online yet, but here are some interesting bits we pieced together so far (emphasis ours).
On French Audiences (transcribed by Yahoo! News):
They were very respectful. We asked that no one used camera phones and they honored that request, unlike Americans who are so obsessed with technology. We don’t like to have our concert filmed that way because it sounds so bad and then you give all the footage to somebody like YouTube who is run by Universal Publishing, and some of those same lawyers.
On the Internet & New Media:
It’s a tool. It’s not a means to an end. My concerts have always been dear to me and it’s almost a shame I got so good at making records because the media is dying now, so until something new happens and we get some laws and restrictions to how the media is used and the revenue is shared, then I’ll just stick with the live stuff and every once in a while I’ll do records.
On Will.i.am (via partial video @ MenStyle.fr):
Will.i.am is a friend of mine and we talk a lot about what the future will look like and how people will actually get music and it has nothing to do with lawyers and accountants that have nothing to say in regards to the creative process.
On “My Humps”:
I like Will.i.am., his business sense and how he sees the world is very interesting. He’s very technology driven, but let’s remember he did write “My Humps.” [laughter]