Song Quotes
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Negativity spreads faster than any Justin Bieber song.
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I get so excited when a song I wrote that's very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.
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I don't ever have the pressure of making a hit, because I've never had a hit song, per se. The closest thing to a hit song was 'Shiraz,' and it's not your prototypical hit song, with a catchy hook and all this other stuff.
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I think I've been influenced by everything I've ever heard. The first thing I ever heard was my grandma, who was an opera singer. The first song I ever learned was the 'Nessun Dorma' from Puccini's 'Turandot.' My father was a big band singer, so I used to hear him walking around the house singing standards all the time.
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The gift of song is just like... I think music is one of those true things in this world that is universal.
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What I love about 'Midnight Train' is that it's a song about a journey, but the music actually takes you on that journey. It feels like you're moving through the whole song.
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A lot of times what happens is, not even just with child actors, but people in general, is they get so caught up in the now. The hot song, the hot TV show, the hot movie. You're not saying 'OK, this is cool, but where am I trying to be 20 years from now?' That's always been in the forefront of my mind.
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I've really been writing a lot of country songs. I used to get criticized for doing a 'Bump & Grind,' then turning around and doing a gospel song. But the truth is I'm glad I have a gift that allows me to switch lanes.
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Up till now I wrote the songs on my acoustic guitar alone with the Lord. Then I would take the song and share it with my family and then we all would figure out instrumentation together.
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I hate being manipulated by song. Don't tell me what I should be feeling. I don't want cellos or violins to be telling me that I should be bawling right now.
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I think it is your job as an artist to be able to hear a song.
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For me, writing a song, I sit down and the process doesn't really involve me thinking about the demographic of people I'm trying to hit or who I want to be able to relate to the song or what genre of music it falls under.
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Sailing is not a romantic song
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My song-writing has always been just about my life - usually my worst moments.
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I was once an extra in a Bruce Springsteen video where they did a live performance video at Tramps. I forget the name of the song.
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Since I met Starsmith, my producer, I really feel like I'm making music because we write it together and produce it together. I've got a proper involvement in the end product as opposed to just writing a song and finding someone else to produce it.
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I like to come up with lots of different sounds. So the final version of a song might have been 10 completely different songs before we finally got it right.
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Rhythm, that's an essential part of cooking. The sound of a lovely song and the smell of some dish in the oven are equally evocative.
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There is no formula to it. Writing every song is a little journey. The first note has to lift you.
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It should take you 15 minutes to make a song, and then get out of there.
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I wrote a song called "Green Day" because I was smoking a lot of dope.
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I will not promote other people's songs big time. I will just mention that I produced the song to get the credit I think I deserve.
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And you have a record company behind it, this is a key too, you need people to fight for your records, at least a little bit. So if you have a great song, it's catchy, and you've got a little bit of help, I think that's all you need. But there hasn't been that in music.
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I met India Arie, who is one of my favorite artists of all time. It was really sweet; I was broken up with a month before, and she stayed up texting me all night and was helping me through it. Her text message looks like a song of hers. She's sort of become my fairy godmother.
