The A.V. Club: So, answer the CMJ suits: Why not go to a bigger label?Ted Leo: There’s three things I have to say about that. The first one is “Because, fuck them.” That’s been my whole life—just fuck this whole world. The second thing is that I actually have thought about it, and I think it would be a really bad decision for me. I think someone of my age, and who makes the kind of music that I make—they would have to make their investment in me pay off. Especially with the current state of the major music world, they’d have to completely change my M.O. I would, for better or for worse, wind up alienating, I’m 100 percent sure, a large percentage of the audience I’ve built for the last 20 years. In some ways, you want to be able to retain your freedom to do whatever you want, so also fuck the naysayers if that ever happened, but at the same time, I know why they’d be upset. Because I grew up a punk kid who felt the same way. I just don’t think it would work, on any front.
Read the full interview here.