Song Quotes
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I find it hard to get excited by just a sound. I have to have a song there, then I'll find what used I can make of that sound within the song.
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I'd rather let the song live and, as I get older, I'm less absorbed with the clothing. The older I get, I just wanna write good songs.
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It's always hard for me to put the pieces together when listening to a finished album that I was a part of writing and playing. There are so many memories wrapped up in each note and each song that it's hard not to constantly flash back to what made that musical event happen while listening.
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I don't have to play the song all the way to the very end - I use it while it's good and while it's cool and while it's exciting, and then I get out.
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And those whom once my song had cheered and gladdened, If still they live, rove through the world now saddened.
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I always liked a good love song and I dig being in love.
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I think the best thing for us is to just write songs that we like.
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I love pop music. It's not easy to write a good pop song.
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Em reminds me of one of my friends from back home. It was just so natural. I forgot in two seconds that he was the biggest-selling artist of the decade. He knows what he’s doing. Me and him mixed the song together and he’s not like somebody that’s telling somebody what to do. We were both on the board turning knobs. The atmosphere and the vibe down there was just super cool.
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I've never wanted to name an album from a song title if I could avoid it because I like it to be a body of work.
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If I can drive down the road in my car and listen to XM satellite, and when a song gets beamed into my car, it can tell me who wrote the song and what the damn lyrics are, why, when you broadcast a digital signal of a film, can't it speak to your television to set up a list of settings to show the film in the way that it was meant to be shown?
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I really feel every word to every song a lot more than I have in the past.
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The thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you're moved by the fact that it's real people making music. You make that human connection with a song like 'Let It Be' or 'Long and Winding Road' or a song like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Roxanne,' any of those songs. They sound like people making music.
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Sometimes when the song is right for that time period, it's just kinda bad to let it wait, and then when you do release it eight months down the road, it's not the same.
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I vividly remember D'Angelo's 'How Does it Feel?' as a song I listened to around the time I came out.
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Every song is completely different. Sometimes they come like a lump of clay and it's your job to chip away and find out what's in the center. Sometimes it comes like swimming fish, and you have to follow it and see where it leads. Sometimes it comes totally fragmented.
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My music is rock. I listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers and I listen to one of my songs, and if I don't give you the same emotion, then I go back and re-spit.
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Writing the songs at the cabin, I couldn't help but be drawn to the boom-chicka rhythms as much as I tried to fight it. But when I fought it, the creative process was interrupted, so I ended up going with it. If I'm ever accused of being derivative of my heroes then I would take that as a compliment. I like staying close to the roots of my influences.
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I think music is better listened to with other people. Music is better shared. It depends what situation you're in - if it's a song by Tom Waits, it can be nice to be on your own, but if it's something slightly more upbeat, it's amazing to be around people.
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We definitely “grow” demos. In the beginning, we have a rough idea, and it usually is a work in progress for a few months. We usually have a couple going at the same time. When a song gets “there”, we will then zero in on it, and focus and finish it.
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I do not want and will not take a royalty on any record I record. I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band write the songs. The band play the music. It's the band's fans who buy the records. The band is responsible for whether it's a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band. I would like to be paid like a plumber. I do the job and you pay me what it's worth.
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And it’s a sad song, Todd, but it’s also a promise. I’ll never deceive you and I’ll never leave you and I promise you this so you can one day promise it to others and know that it’s true.
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That's pretty much how every song of mine works - I start with gibberish and melody and phrasing. I speak it naturally first. And then I think about lyrics that fit into that.
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The problem is I'm a perfectionist, so the producer might say he's happy with my vocal take but I'll say, 'No, it can be better.' I'll do it again and again until I feel I've got the truth out of a song.
