Song Quotes
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I think music should be free. I think all communication should be free. I think people should respect artists, and there should be a certain respect for artists who give their music away for free. If your music winds up on Napster and you approve of it, then the person downloading your music should at least go to your concert, should at least purchase your songs.
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Nat doing 'Fault' was the greatest thing for our band, and the only reason that our song got in it because Nat was screaming it in the movie. Now we can say that we have a song in 'Fault in Our Stars,' and we have a thousand fans who went to listen to our music because we performed at an event for 'Fault in Our Stars.'
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I really get inspired by songs. Like, if I hear a thug 'Want to kill ya' song, I'm ready to go out and get crazy. Or if you hear this really sexual, sensual slow song, I want to go have sex. I'm very animalistic when it comes to stuff like that. Very basic emotions.
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When I see something I end up making a song about it and that's the way it is. There have been plenty of times when I've been in the studio and they were like, "Hey, why don't you make a song about such and such," and I just can't. I've gotta have it in my heart.
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In my banjo show with the Steep Canyon Rangers, I do do comedy during that show. It'd be absurd just to stand there mute and play 25 banjo songs.
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There are some bands for whom that works very well and it's no disrespect to them because I'm sure there's something honest and natural about it, but for us I feel like it would be dishonest and kinda disrespectful to that artwork to do that. To be like: "Okay, we're going to go back and only play these songs, even though we have an hour to an hour and a half set and we gotta play more songs, but we'll skimp you on your extra half hour." That's just silly to me.
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I never knew listening to a song could give you goose bumps and make you cry until I listened to Lauryn Hill.
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Taking the higher ground can be difficult, so it really helps when you can write those feelings into a song.
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I don't start a song with an idea of what ingredients are going to go into a song. It's not like a recipe. I will normally either talk from personal experience or I'll make a character and then try to allow that character to behave the way he or she naturally would.
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There are two things John and I always do when we're going to sit down and write a song. First of all we sit down. Then we think about writing a song.
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When I started this song I was still thirty-three The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free Keats and Shelley too soon finished, Charley Parker would be And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me Well just today I had my birthday I made it thirty-four Mere mortal, not immortal, not star-crossed anymore I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar.
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People try to keep their past, like kind of holding on to their past. Every Springsteen song talks about that.
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When we sing a song we give our soul a cuddle
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A lot of people listening to music now don't listen to the songs or lyrics at all. They just go, "Good tones..." and that's it.
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I make my songs slightly abstract so that people can interpret them their own way. I think that's a lot more special, so you can hear a song and think, 'I feel exactly that way,' even if it wasn't written for that feeling.
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I internalize a lot of thoughts, and sometimes it seems like I'm not listening or totally zoned out, but I'm always on a loop of ideas and song titles. I'm definitely kind of a space cadet, but I'm very laid back.
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Most Americans have probably heard the song 'Santa Claus Is Coming to Town' about a billion times in the supermarket alone.
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But at this phase of my life, I want to write and not have to think about whether a song is going to be a hit. I want to explore the music that inspires me, and I don't want to ape myself.
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A good song to one person could just be something mediocre to somebody else. It's always strange thinking about how songs connect with people.
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I've written poetry since I was in the first grade, and it wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized poetry could be put to music and become a song.
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Sometimes, you try something, and it works in terms of success. That doesn't mean you like what is a hit. Sometimes you like the most obscure song on your album.
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The editing of a song is largely what makes the song for me and I think that actually if I had started going like 'I want you to burn' it would have pinned that song down to a particular thing and made that song a smaller idea than what it is. By leaving that off it's much more open, broader.
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I can't think of very many people who work as hard at the craft of songcraft as Gord Downie does. It was life or death. Every syllable was important.
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No part of Manhattan these days really has the same vibe I get from a Ramones song or a Velvet Underground song.
