“The thing that interests me far more than anything is creating music, songwriting and arranging, and in that context drumming itself is a means to an end. I think it's really easy to forget that - I'd sooner play something musical than flash, and as I can't play anything flash, I try to be musical. Drums can set a mood, create an impression, as much as anything else.” ThinkingTryingMeanEasyInterestForgetMusicalMoodImpressionSongwriting Author:Al Murray
“I think our songwriting has evolved. We can show that we have continued to branch out and do different stuff and incorporate different instruments. When it comes to writing, I think that we have pushed the envelope. We can do whatever we want to try - a longer song or a shorter song, some different instruments, some piano, an intro with just vocals, something that's scathing. Whatever. However we feel the song should go, that's what we will do. With that mindset, I think it's made us better writers.” ThinkingWritingTryingDifferentSongMindsetSongwriting Author:John Bush
“I feel like I've got so much to do, from a music perspective. Jamie's done his record and traveled around the world with it. Romy did all those writing sessions. I would love to do what Romy's done and experience that other side of the pop machine. It sounds terrifying and, at times, a little bit soulless. That's a real pet peeve of mine, when people talk about songwriting in a cynical way. But having said that I still want to do it, just to know what it's like.” PeopleWorldWritingRealDonePerspectivePetSongwritingCynicalSoullessPeevesPet Peeve Author:Oliver Sim
“At the beginning of my career, I saw an opportunity to forge new ground and focus on songwriting. Not many people were doing that at the time. Pretty much nobody. I thought I could write some really cool songs that would rise above all these dozens of genres that exist within dance music. I'd make it more about the songs. For the last 20 years, I've been sharing stories of my life through music. I've been writing songs about my life.” PeopleWritingSongOpportunityFocusSongwritingRise AboveReally CoolStory Of My Life Author:Kaskade
“I've come to recognize songwriting as something that I do, and I want to be good at that. At that craft, if you like. I want to practice it.” Be GoodSongwriting Author:Alex Turner
“A few years back, even the most commercial pop could have some artistic value. Someone who liked underground music could appreciate Justin Timberlake, too. Now, I just don't get it. Production values are boring; songwriting has gotten worse - the choruses on a lot of popular hip-hop songs are especially bad. The rappers hit their flow in the verses, then when they try to sing, it's a mess. And just like the airbrush tool in Photoshop, Autotune is way overused. It's not a toy!” TryingValuesSongAppreciateBoringMessArtisticSongwritingRapperVersesChorusOverused Author:Jorge Elbrecht
“I miss working. It's real, you know? But I don't know anything but songwriting, and I don't even know that. I didn't go to school; the only thing I know how to do is this. The only thing that I know is that I know nothing.” RealSchoolMissingSongwriting Author:Cass McCombs
“I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively-and there were a lot of choices-writing songs was king.” SongSongwriting Author:Jakob Dylan
“I do look at songwriting as a lot of work. I don't overintellectualize music as a special medium that only some people deserve to do. I think it's something you do if you put the work in.” PeopleThinkingSpecialDeserveSongwriting Author:Jakob Dylan
“Folk music is not for a select group of people who feel that maybe he taught them about this music and that it belongs to them. It doesn't belong only to them. It belongs to everyone who's interested in the blueprints of good songwriting.” PeopleMusic IsSongwritingSelectFolk Music Author:Jakob Dylan
“Artists are not going to put somebody new in the president's chair. It's all worth the effort; it all needs to be done. But I don't look at songwriting as having the ability to necessarily do that today.” DoneTodayArtistAbilityEffortSongwriting Author:Jakob Dylan
“I get to play with pop music and mix up the style. It's fun to play with party music and nice to get into the club. My big love is songwriting. I write the lyrics and the vocals, and I work with the producers.” WritingFunLove IsPartyNiceStyleProducersSongwritingPop Music Author:Nomi Ruiz
“I don't think there are any clichés I try to avoid. As soon as I spot a cliché, I go for it. I feel like clichés are the most useful thing in songwriting. They're the tool on which you build all the rest of the song.” ThinkingTryingSongSongwriting Author:Stephin Merritt
“For me going solo meant freedom to collaborate and do whatever I feel I'm good at doing. For me it was really not ever expanding as an artist, developing everything from my songwriting to my singing to my mission statement to my vision. I've been so inspired by all the creative freedom that it brings that I have no complaints.” ArtistVisionCreativeSingingInspiredSongwriting Author:Melissa Auf der Maur
“I think music moves me more than other people. I can hear a song and it can bring me to tears. It doesn't happen the whole time, but I find songwriting - songs - very, very moving. I always have and I don't think it's fading.” PeopleThinkingMovingSongTearsSongwriting Author:Tom Odell
“I think going away and disappearing for a couple of years - or a few years, or whatever - definitely changed the way I look at songwriting. It made me feel more free, it made me feel more like I could just write what I wanted to write about. I wanted to write more observational songs.” ThinkingWritingSongChangedCoupleDisappearGoing AwaySongwriting Author:Elly Jackson
“I am not one of those writers that just does songwriting one way. Personally, I think the best song will pop out all at once, because it's this feeling that the words fit the music so cleanly. When you really have a complete thought, and you always yearn for that as a songwriter. You always work for that.” ThinkingFeelingsSongFitSongwriting Author:Crosby Loggins
“There are a lot of new sounds I've gone for, which I may not have been ready to go for in the past, especially moving away from just rapping. I really tried to push my songwriting side on this one. I think that, for better or worse, people have definitely been able to tell. Changing style is always gonna be a love/hate thing for people, but I love it all, and I can't please everyone so that's all that matters.” PeopleThinkingPastMovingHateStyleRapSongwritingLove HateMoving Away Author:Illy
“It's not a lot, but we have 8,000 people following us. I get the biggest kick out of it, to hear words that I wrote and chords that I wrote being sung by somebody else. It's a true honor, and it might sound intense, but it's one of the most rewarding parts of the songwriting experience.” PeopleHonorIntenseSongwriting Author:Taylor Goldsmith
“I've been making electronic music since I was 12. I was making music as soon as I knew how to make sounds on a piano. My parents had a baby grand, and the piano is still my favorite instrument. I look at it as a songwriting machine.” ParentBabyMy FavoriteSongwritingElectronic Music Author:Travis Stewart
“Everybody has their own approach to songwriting. When you're an electronic musician, the whole writing process just depends. Some people have a very live way of writing electronic music, very improvisational. They set up a lot of gear and do live takes. I'm concerned with having a specific kind of sound. There's not one second that I haven't put thought into. I put almost as much time into my live shows as I do into writing music, but they're two completely different processes. Some people think the way I perform live is how I write songs, which isn't true at all.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindDifferentSongMusicianConcernedSongwritingWriting ProcessElectronic Music Author:Travis Stewart
“I think I'm better at producing than I am at being a songwriter, but it doesn't change the fact that I still have a desire to play and write songs. I've never wanted to be a career musician. But I still love to play and write. It's a big part of who I am. Songwriting is not particularly easy for me. I think it would be easy for me if I didn't have such high restrictions and feelings about what I want my music to be. I'm not precious at all when it comes to producing music and I can bring that to an artist and let them expand their horizons.” ThinkingWritingFeelingsDesireArtistSongEasyMusicianSongwriting Author:John Congleton
“The more people who come from musical backgrounds and go into promotion, production, songwriting, A&R, plus get their business head together, the better. They'll not only understand the business aspect, they'll also have a true passion and ear for how quality is represented musically. Plus consumers will always have a hunger for R&B music.” PeopleTogetherPassionQualityMusicalHungerSongwritingPromotion Author:Damon Thomas
“'Insatiable', the album, was more of a project, really... it was more like a songwriting excursion and an exclusive deal that hadn't really ever been done that often before... me being like, 'ooh I'm an entrepreneur', rather than 'this is my singing career'.” DoneSingingSongwriting Author:Nadine Coyle
“Finding out that Ray Charles sang country songs but it sounded as soulful as any rhythm and blues record that kind of opened up my horizons for what songwriting was and what singers I could listen to.” KindCountrySongRhythmSongwritingSoulful Author:Michael Kiwanuka
“I just want to make a beautiful film. I've had it in my head for so long, so I want to try. Every now and again I get scared. And that's not really how I operate in songwriting or as Sia the artist, the singer. I don't operate from a place of fear. But this is such a new area for me. I still have some insecurity. So, like, once a week I get washed from the top of my skull down to my toes with this vomitous feeling of fear. I think, "Just don't do it. You don't have to do it. You're already a singer and a songwriter. Really, you don't have to make a movie.".” ThinkingTryingLongFeelingsBeautifulFilmArtistWeekScaredInsecuritySongwriting Author:Sia Furler
“I love the pursuit of songwriting, and I've seen what songs can do in people's lives. Some of the stories that come back from songs flying around the globe are so encouraging.” SongFlyingSongwriting Author:Matt Redman
“In a basic music way, my sense of melody and my style of songwriting and production carry the same thought process into the new music. I'm thinking about machines and electronics, and how they interact with motion, which I've touched upon in the past. Those key themes are my main interests, and they are really the foundation for my approach to music.” ThinkingPastInterestStyleMelodySongwriting Author:Sophie
“I really like and singing, and songwriting and producing. It depends on the song and the mood and who I'm working with, what the song is about and where it came from, any number of things affect the levels of creativity. I try not to do too much delineating with my art. Really, it's art, so for me I don't have a most, I just really enjoy my entire process.” TryingArtSongEnjoyCreativitySingingMoodSongwriting Author:Lalah Hathaway
“I usually eat breakfast twice. I'm usually up at 3 a.m. - do my spiritual work, my affirmations, a little bit of songwriting, get my daily work in order, and by that time I've worked up a bigger appetite.” SpiritualSongwritingAffirmationDaily Work Author:Dolly Parton
“I think the songs I was writing after Aeroplane were full of a lot of undealt-with pain that was just a little too big... the issues seemed too large for me to confront intuitively through songwriting. I kept pushing it and pushing it. There are so many issues about being human and why people inflict pain on each other. There were seeds of all these things I hadn't dealt with. With just the personal issues, I felt I was in over my head, but then to write about it... To write you have to have at least a little bit of confidence you know what you're talking about.” PeopleThinkingWritingPainSongSongwritingBeing Human Author:Jeff Mangum
“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
“I'm more critical of my songwriting than anybody, but I've worked really hard in the last five to 10 years to improve. I didn't take it all that seriously when I started. It was a little bit of a stigma to being a songwriter or a folkie back then. I did a lot of send-ups of sensitive singer-songwriter stuff when I was starting out, which limited my development as a songwriter in a way. I wasn't really fully given license to explore that until the mid-90s. I'm still working on it; I'm a little bit of a late bloomer.” SensitiveSongwritingStigma Author:Beck
“I feel like the inspiration is that I've managed to change my songwriting over the past couple of years and also production styles. I could get a sense of what really worked well, and I think this sound developed naturally. That's what happens when you're doing it all the time and changing as a person. Some songs were really dark, and others were more psychedelic. It was useful to have that to figure out exactly what I wanted to do.” ThinkingInspirationPastSongDarkStyleCoupleSongwritingPsychedelicOver The Past Author:Marika Hackman
“I don't really have a set-in-stone process or formula. Sometimes the melody is there and I have to chase down the lyrics. Sometimes, the song is there and I have to make the melody fit. What I've learned so far about songwriting is that I can't force a song. If I try to do that, it's hollow, and people know a hollow song when they hear it. It's the song they stop listening to and forget about. I'd prefer not to write those kinds of songs.” PeopleWritingTryingKindSometimesSongForgetListeningFitMelodySongwriting Author:Kasey Anderson
“There's this art form in songwriting that's incredibly difficult - to be really funny in a song and also really touching. I can't do that.” ArtSongDifficultSongwritingTouching Author:Neko Case
“Each song has its own secret that's different from another song, and each has its own life. Sometimes it has to be teased out, whereas other times it might come fast. There are no laws about songwriting or producing. It depends on what you're doing, not just who you're doing.” DifferentSometimesMightLawSongSecretDependsSongwritingSongwritersWriting Songs Author:Mark Knopfler
“A lot of people pretty much only listen to the chorus.” PeopleSongwritingSongwritersWriting SongsChorus Author:Lenny Kravitz
“I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.” ThinkingWritingKindUseSongStyleSongwritingSongwritersWriting SongsInstrumentation Author:Lenny Kravitz
“A songwriter writes songs all the time, whereas just writing a song can be done by anyone, anytime.” WritingDoneSongMusicSongwritingSongwriters Author:Bryan Adams
“That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.” SongExpressionStructureSongwritingIntrigue Author:Geddy Lee
“You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.” KnowsHeartSoulExpressionIntellectSongwriting Author:Annie Lennox
“I'm a fairly tormented artist, and I'm less willing to indulge myself in self-pity, outside of songwriting.” SelfArtistMusicWillingPitySongwritingIndulgeSelf PityTormented Souls Author:Dave Matthews
“For me, in songwriting, I have a route I can take. Maybe there's some forks, I can go this way, this way. But I know those roads. I still have the experience behind me.” KnowsWayStillsI CanBehindsSongwritingRoutesForks Author:Dave Matthews
“I think it's good if a song has more than one meaning. Maybe that kind of song can reach far more people.” PeopleIfsThinkingKindSongStarsMusicSongwritingMusic And Life Author:Syd Barrett
“Somebody said to me, 'But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.' That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, 'Now, let's write a swimming pool.'” WritingSaidFunnyUsedMoneyHugeDown AndMythMaterialismSongwritingSwimmingPoolMaterialisticFunny MoneySwimming PoolGreat Beatles Author:Paul McCartney
“Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes.” IfsInspirationalForeverAcceptanceUniqueBoredBoredomSongwritingCherishBoresStrong WomenCuzYawning Author:Bette Midler
“You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining.” WritingKindMomentsProblemEyeSongMusicEmotionalPeriodsComplainingClarityThat MomentSongwritingSongwritersSensitivityMoments Of ClarityEmotional Problems Author:Joni Mitchell