Creativity Quote by Adrian Smith

The little wince in "units, as they are called" is doing most of the work here. Adrian Smith isn’t just dismissing corporate language; he’s showing how it smuggles in a value system. Call albums "units" and you’re already halfway to treating art like inventory, musicians like suppliers, and fans like a market segment to be harvested. The aside lands like a side-eye at a meeting he never wanted to attend.

Smith frames integrity as an active, ongoing practice: "We try and stay out" suggests the corporate side is a gravity well, always tugging. "Never compromised" is the rock-band version of an oath, but he immediately complicates it with a tempting counterfactual: they could have chased a specific, proven sound and "sold millions". That hypothetical matters because it acknowledges the lure. He’s not pretending success is evil; he’s saying there’s a kind of success that comes with an invoice attached.

The subtext is also about power and authorship. "A certain type of record" implies an external template: radio-friendly, trend-compliant, optimized for scale. Smith positions the band’s identity as something you protect from that optimization. For audiences, this is less purity sermon than a reassurance: the bargain hasn’t changed. You’re not being sold a focus-grouped version of the band; you’re buying the stubborn continuity of a voice that refused to translate itself into corporate dialect.