Song Quotes
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'Whiplash' was always the song I hated the most because it's a song designed to screw with drummers.
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Gandhi was only minding his own business when he took a walk to get some salt and ended up overthrowing the British Empire. You can't set out to overthrow an empire, but if you have to get some salt then get some salt. If you have to write some independent songs that are honest, just write them. If you have to do a day job stacking shelves, so be it.
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One of the reasons I didn't ever pursue a career - in the music world if you're black or mixed, you need to be able to belt a song or else you're not a singer, you know?
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The creative process doesn’t change much. When writing a song, you’re looking for melody, rhythm and words that people can relate to.
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It's very rare that a song falls from your mind complete.
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Sometimes, if a song is written, in essence, to be that stripped down, it's very touchy when you start adding things, because even the smallest thing can have a huge impact. Somebody has to make the decision that there's a better song in there if there's less.
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Sometimes you can gauge the excitement of the rest of the band. If I'm bringing a song in and they're excited, then I'll hold on to that one. But there are times where it's like, 'Eh, I don't really like that one,' and we have to send that one on.
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The best thing about being a DJ is making people happy. There is nothing like seeing people get up from a table to dance or the expression on their face when they hear a song they love. I also love to educate people on music they have never heard.
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I did the co-writing thing all through the '90s and I got one hit out of it - a Keith Urban song called 'But For The Grace Of God' - but then I got burnt out.
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If I try to write a song, I will completely fail to write a song. But if I'm just holding my guitar and I just start humming, then I'll have a song in an hour.
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Around the time I dropped out of college, I decided to start taking what I liked about short stories and apply it to writing songs - to make these things that would change and keep going.
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They keep the song as street as it needs to be. It's got a good catchy hook where it can do what it needs to do on the radio, but they keep the song street where it will keep credibility in the hood.
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I don't mean this in a stuck-up way, but I needed an attitude song.
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I saw that something changed in terms of the way I approach writing. I don't know. Before, everything was just sort of pieced together; and more and more nowadays I'll have complete songs - chords, lyrics, a melody - and we'll apply to those songs what we feel is required. That has happened much more on Humbug album than on any of the others.
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I wanted to try to make songs that worked as songs, not just as productions. People wanted me to do a solo acoustic session, they were like "Can you play song on the piano?" and I was like "Not really. It doesn't really work." I wanted to write songs that would work in a variation of instrumentation.
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'Onward' was a song I wrote in Montreux, in Switzerland, when we were there camping out for the whole winter. In the summer, Montreux is a really, really big summertime-touristy, full-of-life kind of place. In the winter, it closes down.
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We all live on the same planet. We have the ability to move towards unity. Contemporary politicians continue to apply the medieval concept of divide-and-conquer. The song is a simple exhortation to ignore them, to get to one’s own true feelings and come together honestly. I don’t personally know anyone who thinks otherwise, so I’m just adding my voice to it.
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After a decade this glum, we deserved a shot of 'Glee,' a show that restored our faith in the power of song, the beauty of dance, and the magic of 'spirit fingers' to chase our cares and woes into somebody else's backyard.
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Once I release a song, it's not just about me or the people... I write about. They're my stories, but they're not really mine any more.
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Sometimes I might borrow something from a song I started a long time ago and see if I can grab something.
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I love playing the new songs live. I hate playing a new song and then having to play an old song again, it feels really boring.
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I think what it means to be an 'American Girl,' and what I wrote the song about, is our freedoms. The idea that we as Americans can be what we want to be and say what we want to say and that we take it for granted.
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When I sing along with Britney Spears I will sing in an American accent. But eventually I found my own voice. My songs are so brutally honest, it would be alien to sing in any accent other than my own. Don't get me wrong - I can imitate singers. I can do bar mitzvahs and weddings.
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I got so excited about it. I was like, 'Yes! I won a Grammy!' And then my manager was like, 'No, you did not win a Grammy. You were part of a song that won a Grammy. Rihanna won a Grammy.'
