“Anyone can sit down and write some boring artistic song. Pop music is the hardest [stuff] to write.” WritingSongStuffMusic IsDown AndBoringPopsHardestArtisticPop Music Author:Britney Spears
“I started when I was really young. I was playing classical music when I was 4 and when I turned 11 I started to write pop music. I guess you could say it was my intellectual evolution and my love of music began to change.” WritingYoungEvolutionMusic IsIntellectualPopsClassical MusicPop MusicMusic Love Author:Lady Gaga
“Writing music is always really helpful for me. It always reveals to me how I am feeling.” WritingFeelingsMusic IsHelpfulWriting Music Author:Erika M. Anderson
“For me, writing music is a good way to say what's on my mind. It's less vulnerable in a way, less embarrassing, less exposing to the idea of seeing someone's reaction. The thing about it, though, is you need to be ready... especially if you've got something you're burning to say... even if it's just what some people might think is just a small moment that nobody'd ever bother with or notice.” PeopleIfsThinkingWayNeedsWritingMindIdeasMomentsMightSeeingReadyMusic IsReactionsVulnerableBurningBotherEmbarrassingGood WayExposingWriting MusicSmall Moments Author:Aaron Lines
“I have tried to write soundtracks, and the main problem with those was that the directors often had in their minds a much stronger sense of what they wanted to hear, than what I was willing to give them, and I guess there was no way to say, "Well why don't you write your scene around my music?" Because that's just cocky and awful.” WayGivingWritingMindWellsProblemWantedWillingSceneDirectorsMusic IsStrongerAwfulCockySoundtracks Author:Zach Condon
“People have an affinity towards things, and you don't know where it comes from. Mozart wrote a symphony when he was four, so it's said; the theory is maybe because his father was a conductor, it happened in vitro, and he heard the music before he was born, and by the age of four he knew how to write music.” PeopleKnowsWritingSaidAgeFatherBornFourHappenedHeardTheoryMusic IsSymphonyConductorAffinity Author:William Shatner
“The New Kids took some hits for, you know, not writing their own music. But on a songwriting standpoint, I mean, I'd never written music before when I was in the group, ... Now the music is my music, so it's kind of like my baby, and that was a whole different experience.” KnowsWritingKindMeanDifferentWholeKidsWrittenGroupsBabyMusic IsSongwritingStandpointMy BabyDifferent Experiences Author:Joey McIntyre
“I have a notebook that I take with me everywhere. I free-write in it when there are situations that I know I can write a song about. I will just start writing everything that I can think of while trying to write some things that are kind of poetic or sound like they could be in a song. Then, after the music is written, I go back and look at my subjects to see which one I think woud go with what music. Then, I formulate it into a melody and get the song.” ThinkingKnowsWritingTryingLooksKindI CanSongSoundSituationWrittenSubjectsMusic IsPoeticMelodyNotebook Author:Agent M
“It's a mystical quality of music, that music isn't really concrete, and it's communicating abstractions about imaginary worlds. At least, my music's like that. It's not real. It's unreal, it's all fabrication. To write a song about Obama would suddenly break the spell.” WorldWritingRealSongQualityBreakMusic IsCommunicateSpellsConcreteImaginaryMysticalAbstractionUnrealFabricationImaginary World Author:Sufjan Stevens
“I write music better in the winter, I prefer making music when it's dark.” WritingDarkMusic IsWinter Author:Grimes
“Music is, by far, the best art. Nothing even comes close. It's so immediate and emotional. In writing, maybe ninety percent of it is the unconscious and ten percent is control. In music, I think it's probably more like ninety-nine percent the unconscious. It's just a beautiful thing happening through you. And so, too, is writing a great story.” ThinkingWritingArtStoriesBeautifulEmotionalTenMusic IsHappeningsPercentThings HappenNineUnconsciousBeautiful ThingsNinetyNinety NineBest Art Author:T.C. Boyle
“For me, writing music is a way of processing the world. It's not a concrete thing, as in, "This piece is about giraffes." It's much more of an emotional sort of thing. I want people to find something out about themselves through my music, something that was inaccessible before, something that they were suppressing, something that they couldn't really confront.” PeopleWorldWayWantWritingPiecesEmotionalMusic IsConcreteProcessingWriting MusicInaccessibleSuppressingGiraffe Author:Missy Mazzoli
“I think the best thing about music is that someone could be writing a song that's so personal, and it tells so many other people's story at the same time. It kind of exemplifies that we are all kind of on the same wave[length] - it's amazing how comforting somebody else's story can be, because we have experienced their story in some way or another, and I can totally relate, and I get to feel that feeling and the expression of that emotion. I get to feel like as a listener, that somebody understands me, which is pretty incredible.” PeopleThinkingWayFeelsWritingKindI CanStoriesFeelingsSongEmotionExpressionMusic IsIncrediblesWaveAll KindsRelateBest ThingsLengthListenersComfortingUnderstand Me Author:Theresa Wayman
“Saying directors don't write because they don't type is very wrong, it's like saying Dylan doesn't write music because he doesn't write notation.” WritingTypeDirectorsMusic IsDylan Author:William Monahan
“I've translated two of Bae's novels, A Greater Music and Recitation, which are coming from Open Letter and Deep Vellum in October and January respectively. A Greater Music is a semi-autobiographical book centred on a Korean writer moving to Berlin, learning to live and even write in a foreign language.” WritingTwoBookMovingLanguageNovelGreaterMusic IsLettersBerlinOctoberKoreanJanuaryForeign LanguageRecitationBae Author:Deborah Smith
“Music is the first thing I ever cared greatly about. I've been singing and writing songs since I was six or seven.” WritingFirstsSongSixMusic IsSingingSevenWriting Songs Author:Angel Olsen
“I hope people hear my songs and realize that writing music is kind of easy, or that taking your sadness and turning it into a beautiful song is worthwhile.” PeopleWritingKindBeautifulSongEasyRealizingSadnessMusic IsWorthwhileWriting Music Author:Frankie Cosmos
“Writing music is really personal, and it's a really exciting thing to participate in because represents the full creative process: It feels like something is coming from nothing.” FeelsWritingProcessCreativeMusic IsExcitingCreative ProcessLike SomethingWriting MusicExciting Things Author:Zooey Deschanel
“Actually, I very much dislike routine. Creating music is my chaos therapy. The writing process puts me in a good place. Recording the music is the release of however I felt in the song.” WritingSongFeltProcessCreatingMusic IsChaosReleaseTherapyRoutineDislikeWriting ProcessGood PlaceCreating Music Author:Mpho Koaho
“I love making music. I feel like people often get into that 'you should only make music for yourself' kind of place, where they say things like, "I don't write for other people, I write for myself," and I feel like that misses the mark so much because music, especially pop music, is so much more than yourself.” PeopleFeelsShouldWritingKindMissingMusic IsMarkPopsPop MusicLove Making Author:Thomston
“I feel like writing music is a great chance to create something that extends beyond yourself.” FeelsWritingChanceMusic IsWriting Music Author:Thomston
“I just figured if I'm going to call myself a songwriter throughout my life, then writing for most genres of music is something I should at least attempt.” IfsShouldWritingMusic IsGenreSongwritersGenres Of Music Author:Phil Collins
“Finally, ultimately, you write music for yourself. I mean, I need a public, I need people to play, I need everything else. I'm not working in isolation. But finally the man that writes the music is alone. And I have to respond to those criteria which are almost like inner needs or inner responses.” PeopleMenNeedsWritingMeanPlayHe ManMusic IsResponseIsolationCriteria Author:Philip Glass
“My worlds are completely different. Painting is a peaceful world, and it's a different vibe than having a great match. You are able to look back at what you created when you finish. Recording music is an entirely different monster. When you finally write something, you do a demo and then you go into the studio. Doing the master version, that's the best feeling ever - especially when you're so proud of what you've written, and you can't wait for people to hear it. That's actually very similar to trying to tell a story in a wrestling match.” PeopleWorldWritingTryingLooksDifferentStoriesFeelingsAbleWaitingWrittenPaintingMastersProudMusic IsStudiosMonstersVersionsPeacefulWrestlingPeaceful WorldDemosRecording Music Author:Jeff Hardy
“My music is very raw, it's emotional, and it's honest. I do my best to tell a story whenever I write music because I want to paint the most vivid picture that tells a story whether a person is falling in love for the first time or going through a painful heartbreak.” WantWritingFirstsPersonsStoriesFallHonestEmotionalMusic IsFirst TimePaintFalling In LovePainfulVivid Author:Adrian Marcel
“I was inspired by what students have done in some schools organizing walkouts protesting the lack of funding and that sort of thing. There are opportunities for students to engage in those types of protests - taking to the streets - but there is also writing poetry, writing music, beginning to express themselves, holding forums, educating each other, the whole range.” WritingDoneWholeSchoolOpportunityStreetsStudentsTypeMusic IsInspiredRangeProtestFundingForumsWriting PoetryWriting Music Author:Michelle Alexander
“When I was home, traditionally since I was young, I'd write in cafés. That was the romantic notion in 1963. Café atmospheres back then were different. The café life really stemmed from the Parisians' idea of it, with poets struggling over their poems and drinking coffee. No music, no sounds, maybe a little jazz, or soul, but mostly nothing. Now you go into a café and the music is really loud, people are having business meetings, they are on their cellphones. It changes from generation to generation.” PeopleWritingLittlesIdeasDifferentSoulHomeYoungSoundStruggleGenerationsPoetMusic IsJazzMeetingsDrinkingNotionCoffeeAtmosphereLoudCellphoneDrinking CoffeeBusiness Meeting Author:Patti Smith
“I always listen to music when I write! I basically make a playlist for every essay; sometimes it's just one song, or three songs, over and over and over. I sort of find the emotional pitch of the piece, and then match music to it, and then the music becomes a shortcut to the feeling, so I can enter it and work anywhere: on planes, cafes, at work, the train.” WritingSometimesFeelingsSongEmotionalMusic IsTrainEssaysListening To Music Author:Melissa Febos
“Music is infinite and personal. I don't want to put myself in a box. I want to try everything and I'm trying everything. I'm really trying to write what's in my heart and what I feel without a lot of help in that department. It's about being brave.” WritingTryingHeartHelpingMy HeartMusic IsInfiniteBrave Author:Brandy Norwood
“I can write, boy, I can write. That's what I do. The trouble is that it's too bloody easy for people, that's why music is in the sorry state that it is. Any idiot, actors mainly, can go in there, sing a chord, bang on a machine... I'm not objecting to that but when people get at me for trying to say something in a rock 'n' roll mode it's as if I'm the freak.” PeopleWritingTryingEasyBoysTroubleMusic IsSorryIdiotFreakBloody Author:Mark E. Smith
“The exciting part about sitting down and writing songs, playing shows, or being a musician in general is that you never know where those songs and that music is going to take you. There's such a cool feeling about that the phone could ring tomorrow and someone could say "he guess what? your song..." That really is cool.” WritingFeelingsSongTomorrowMusicianMusic IsExcitingRings Author:Graham Colton
“I think that if you listen to the same exact genre of music that you play, it is so easy to be influenced by it. There will be times where we are writing a song, and then realize that it songs like something we just heard on the radio. There was a while when we were writing, that I didn't listen to music because I didn't want to be influenced.” ThinkingWritingSongEasyRealizingMusic IsListening To Music Author:Taylor Jardine
“I am not really thinking, I am just, working with the music. And people have asked me, why don't you say more, or why do you not have singers, or why don't you sing? I think it's because, if I would have words for what I am doing, I I could write. But I really don't. It's a whole different thing. And I think it's one of the beauty of instrumental music is that it can be background. It can be what people call "easy listening." But it's really one of those things where it's as much as you are willing to give it.” PeopleThinkingGivingWritingDifferentEasyListeningMusic Is Author:Ottmar Liebert
“Cornelius Cardew very famous in Britain, because he was the darling of the avant-garde, and he played in a band called AMM, which was an improvising band in the '60s. Paul McCartney used to come watch them. Later on in life, he became disenchanted with avant-garde music, because he felt it couldn't reach the public. It didn't have a wide enough appeal. So he'd take these tunes of old English folk songs and write Stalinist lyrics over the top of them. I do think that when he changed to folk songs, he actually lost the tiny audience he already had, which is quite interesting.” ThinkingWritingEnoughSongInterestingAudienceChangedMusic IsVery Famous Author:Alasdair MacLean
“Sometimes I'll write a song first and then I'm like, "Oh this person will be great on this song." But there are some artists I know what want, like off the top I knew I wanted Brandy and Faith Evans. Their music is like the soundtrack to my life, so it was a personal thing for me. So once they said yes, I wrote songs specifically for them.” WritingSometimesArtistSongMusic IsBrandy Author:Robert Glasper
“I love music. I think music is a big inspiration; I listen to it a lot when I'm writing. I really love cinematic music. A lot of the time, I make playlists for my characters when I act. I also make playlists for the scripts that I write.” ThinkingWritingCharacterInspirationMusic IsI Love Music Author:Quinn Shephard
“I'm really proud to be a woman making music. Nothing makes me happier than when other women approach me at shows and say, "You've inspired me to start writing music," or, "I feel like we could be best friends." Music is a male-dominated business, so it's nice to see bands with girls in them, and not just a bunch of dudes with beards in flannel shirts.” WritingGirlNiceProudMusic IsInspiredShirtsBeard Author:Bethany Cosentino
“The one good thing about a movie and music and stuff like that: Sometimes it's a counterpoint between the movie and the music itself, the difference and the tension they build together. I think that could be something that helped with me, because when I write songs now, I write lyrics a bit like that. I try to make the music be an interesting twist on the lyrics and help tell the story in a - I don't tell crazy stories, you know? So a lot of times, the twist is in the subtleties. The twist is in the way the story's told.” ThinkingWritingTryingSometimesHelpingTogetherSongInterestingCrazyMusic IsGood ThingsTensionSubtlety Author:Patrick Watson
“I think my music being referred to as "cinematic" has a lot to do with people just not being used to listening to instrumental music without watching a film. I'm still pretty convinced of that. You'll play Chopin in place of something average and like, "Wow, that'd be great in a film." People say it every time, swear to God. I don't think people have a good relationship with instruments and music anymore. But it's definitely visual; I started writing with this band because of the pictures. I can't really deny it either, you know?” PeopleThinkingWritingFilmListeningMusic IsSwearGood Relationship Author:Patrick Watson
“I think my philosophy on music is sort of like the difference between religion and spirituality or religion and faith. There's a lot of bullshit in the music industry. It's really tough to get a leg up and navigate around your gender and stereotypes. You feel hopeless, [but] all of that disappears the minute that I start writing a song. Then I record something and have that magical feeling. You have to have the negative and the positive. Trying to own that and go to that place in yourself creatively is the most important thing.” ThinkingWritingTryingImportantPhilosophyFeelingsSongSpiritualityMusic IsToughNegativeGenderDisappearHopelessBullshitStereotypeMusic Industry Author:Haley Bonar
“One of the joys of writing music is making your own mark. Study other stuff, immerse yourself in music and then tell your own truth.” WritingJoyStudyMusic Is Author:Thea Gilmore
“Conception of a film starts with the music. Always. I hear the movie before I can ever write it. I would say that 80% of the time, that's the successful stuff. It's the other stuff I have to work for to get right, and sometimes it doesn't work out, but the music is always the beginning. So I'm still a music journalist.” WritingSometimesFilmSuccessfulMusic IsWork OutJournalist Author:Cameron Crowe
“Music is all about seduction, so it's an ongoing flirtation, but watching anyone do what they are talented at is totally intoxicating. Take even the ugliest guy and have them do something they are really passionate about - they are instantly attractive. Unfortunately watching someone write is a little lackluster. Maybe if they had a really sexy keyboard face.” WritingGuyMusic IsPassionateSexyAttractiveSeductionFlirtation Author:Ophira Eisenberg
“You can learn to write. But what you write is something that depends on your taste and on your vision or whatever. Also, of course, the music I listened to inspired my idea of music. When people ask me "Where's your inspiration? Where does it come from?" I have no idea. Music is about music. Not about life and love.” PeopleWritingInspirationVisionMusic IsInspiredAsk MeLife And Love Author:Nils Frahm
“I believe that the greatest music is storytelling anyway, in a heightened medium. So I write a lot of music, and I play a lot with my guitar, I still sing a lot, but now I'm more personal about it than public, in a way. I think there will be a time where I'd like to bring the singing back into some of my performances. It all depends if the material's right, if the story's right, if it's my kind of taste in music, as well. It means so much to me. We all know how affective music can be, I just want to make sure when I do it, I'm doing it because I actually feel it and I care about it.” ThinkingWritingBelieveKindMeanCareI BelieveMusic IsSingingStorytellingI Care Author:Aneurin Barnard
“I was thinking a lot about music, about how music is mixed and how everything is happening at the same time; it just amounts to how the sound is lowered or raised. I was trying to get that with writing.” ThinkingWritingTryingMusic Is Author:Dennis Cooper
“Music is the highest art form.I still think that. I wish I was really talented in music because then I would be doing it. I felt that I could write a decent song, but it was a big struggle. It took a lot of time and effort for me, whereas a lot of my peers and other people seemed to have a much easier relationship to it. But I profoundly love music, and I still dream that I might one day try to write some new songs and record something - just for myself, to see what would happen.” PeopleThinkingWritingTryingArtDreamSongWishEffortStruggleOne DayMusic IsDecent Author:Johan Renck
“When I listen to my songs, they seem like pieces of music or art, like a painting that you look at. The reality is that, yes, when I wrote the songs upstairs or wherever, I was writing very specifically about my life or a specific subject matter that's very personal. I've never shied away from that. The vocals and the performance that come after the record, I don't think of that as confessional, but the core of the music is completely. It makes sense that people would see that as being the main thing. I guess not everyone is able to speak so candidly.” PeopleThinkingWritingArtRealitySongSpeakPaintingMusic IsMake Sense Author:Martha Wainwright
“Sometimes I'm trying to communicate a feeling. Sometimes I can't piece it together into any kind of coherant thesis. I'm just trying to evoke some kind of mood, and put some kind of idea in somebody's head. If Marshall McLuhan or Harold Innis were looking at it, they would tell you that the genre of rock music isn't the best way to deliver a political message because it distorts it, it makes it into entertainment. Perhaps the best political message is just to speak it to somebody. I think that's something I'm always writing about in songs, just how to mediate, how to present something.” ThinkingWritingTryingKindSometimesFeelingsTogetherPoliticalSongSpeakMusic IsCommunicateMoodRock MusicThesis Author:A.C. Newman
“What keeps me motivated to create new music is the joy of songwriting. The joy of being creative. The joy of writing a poem or essay. Writing anything. I just love writing, whether it is music or words. I just didn't need to share it for the last 18 years. When you share it, it brings on other things, which is good.” WritingJoyCreativeShareMusic IsSongwritingMotivatedBe CreativeEssays Author:Nick Heyward