Song Quotes
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Once the song is done and recorded, I like to go back and then cut the drums, because then I know exactly what the song needs, and what it doesn't need.
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I've never forgotten a single record I cut or a song I wrote.
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As a songwriter, I do kind of look at 'Santa Monica' as a thing outside of itself, because it isn't just my song. This is a song a lot of people tell me is a part of their high school or college years. That means a lot to me.
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Van Halen was a huge influence on me, and 'Eruption' was the song that really leaped off that first Van Halen album.
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I'm remixing an R.E.M. track called 'I've Been High' from their last album, 'Reveal.' It's a beautiful song, but record execs didn't put it out as a single because it didn't sound like the R.E.M. we're used to. So I asked Michael Stipe if I could have the tapes to do a remix, and he agreed.
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Each song is a lifetime, it begins and ends, and there's a journey taken within the songs.
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As a songwriter, I try not to be sloppy; same with the music. You can be very lean, very efficient, so you're not wasting a lot of time getting' to the point. You're saying it with as pure a word or phrase as you can. That's the part that was craft. You refine and refine and refine. Maybe that's why the songs still hang on, because they're very pure. For one thing, they're very short. "Bad Moon Rising" is like 2 minutes and 12 seconds. I would try to do everything as quickly and with as little extra as possible. It was a challenge.
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'Sweet Dreams' is such a dark-sounding song, but it's about not taking anything for granted; share yourself with others after you have first spent some time with yourself.
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You try to make a film, and you have to come up with the money. You need a big crew; you need to ask people for favors and get permission. If you have an idea for a song, you can pretty much go into your basement with your band mates and do it.
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I understand why people get desensitized and roll their eyes when they hear a protest song, or even a politician making some flowery speech. It doesn't really change anything.
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That's why I'm very wise [in] the way I choose the remixes 'cuz I know that the song has to transcend well. You already have a base, instead of me just doing my own production and I don't have to start from scratch.
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I wake up in the morning and I say 'Ahh! Today's the day for a song! I'm going to write a song today!' And I do. I write a song.
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A light broke in upon my brain, -It was the carol of a bird;It ceased, and then it came again,The sweetest song ear ever heard.
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The hardest song to write is a protest song, a topical song with meaning.
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These are very difficult times for new artists. Back in the day, a hit song could really seep into a person's DNA with radio and MTV. A hit today is not the same as a hit twenty years ago. Now there is so much competition, it is very hard to reach the people. The music scene is so overly saturated. There are no gatekeepers like there used to be.
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I'm just writing love songs. I'm not trying to be pop. I'm not trying to be jazz. I'm not trying to be anything. I'm just writing love songs. And everyone loves a love song.
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I think, for me, one of the biggest things that I struggle with is keeping the excitement up when writing a song. A lot of times, I'll get pretty frustrated early on.
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It's always difficult to know if a song needs more than piano, and I worry about my tendency to go in a sparse direction.
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There are so many songs that have become massive hits merely because the video is great, while the song is pretty rubbish. From that point of view, I think I've always preferred to listen to a song rather than look at it.
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I'm the same guy at that podium preaching to the people on every single song. I'm not doing a dance for you on another song. It's all a direct assault.
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Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke. Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?
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Whether you're writing a book or a song or whatever, you've got to be involved in it. It's got to come from the heart I think...that's what it's all about.
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It is very unnatural to dance while playing the violin. I had to practice so hard to learn how to do it, but now it is part of my expression, and it comes naturally. I have to know a song perfectly before I can even begin to move.
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It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most.
