In this post, you will find great Song Quotes from famous people, such as Feist, Kami Garcia, George Benson, Willie Nelson, Karol G. You can learn and implement many lessons from these quotes.
If a song was ever good, it’s still good.
I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.
‘Rise Up’ is definitely my baby. I think it was a gift because, you know, it’s like God just spoke to me and wrote that song. It’s very powerful.
With songs, it doesn’t matter what song it is; every time I go out and perform it, it’s like the first time I’m performing it, the first time I wrote it. If it’s not, then I’m not going to do it that night.
Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don’t go there to swim, then those young people don’t have to find out by trial and error.
At art school, a teacher said: ‘The best paintings are when you get lost in a piece of work and start painting in a stream of consciousness.’ I wanted to do music, not art, so started writing lyrics that way. The first song I wrote was called ‘Ice Cream and Wafers.’ The next was ‘Holding Back the Years.’
You know what? I’m not always in a positive, happy place. But I’m able to concentrate enough to come up with a really good song.
After talking to people and meeting them every day, I realize that a song can be written from one perspective with an objective in mind. What is crazy about it is that many different people can take one song a totally different way. That is so cool, since music is a universal thing and a very personal thing.
I try to imagine how we would live if we didn’t know we were going to die. Would we live our lives differently? Less careful, maybe? Less scared? These are beautiful things to think about and build a song around.
It’s not just about getting a song on the radio or appearing on television. It really is about helping people change their lives one day at a time.
The song ‘Tyler Durden’ is about the movie ‘Fight Club,’ so obviously, it’s not a personal experience, but I love that song. It’s my favorite song.
With technology now, you can go in and sing a song, and for $100,000, you will sound flawless.
Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.
I got a song called ‘All That I Got Is You.’ I wrote that from the heart.
Everybody has their favorite sad songs. That’s part of what I love so much about country music. Country music is never afraid to go with a sad song.
If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem, and you’re screwed.
Me and Thugger could make nine songs in a day and then choose which songs we like the most and think is gonna do something. With other people, it’s like, we pick one song, and we hope it’s the one.
If I write when I’m low, it will be a dark song, but I don’t care. I want to be honest with myself at all times.
It’s so interesting how you can take a bad situation and make a great song out of it that somebody else can listen to and have a completely different perspective of the song and have their own meaning. That’s what’s great about it.
In Mali, you hear music everywhere. What is fantastic in Mali is the music tradition is handed down from father to son orally. It is not written. You learn from your father and add something, because you are living now and telling a story to others. This results in many different interpretations of the same song.
I need a little bass and I don’t even need that crazy bass to break your face. I just want it to sound good when I have my favorite song.
I can’t just make a song people can dance in a club to… it still has to be real.
Jay-Z called me onstage during my song that I produced for ‘Watch the Throne?’ That was surreal, man. One of those situations I’ll never forget. I’ll be able to show my kids the footage of when Jay-Z brought me onstage.
I love Future. ‘Turn on the Lights’ is the best song ever. You can cry to it. You can relate to it.
A good song gathers the years in. It’s why you can sing it with such conviction 40 years after it’s been written.
The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation. I can’t contrive a song.
Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.
What I’ve learned how to do as I’ve gotten older is to take all of the information that I have, and push it aside, and try to distill each song into an emotional theme. The hardest thing that I’ve ever had to learn how to do in playing music is use the sound of my instrument to create an emotional effect.
I don’t do every song that comes my way; I’m very choosy.
I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.
Yeah, but on the U.S Tour we threw a new song into the set almost every night. Ofcourse, you can’t do too many new songs every night as they’ve never heard it.
Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I think the ordinary guy has just as much right to say ‘This is a good song’ as somebody who is in the music business.
I have songs that define characters from each film of mine. It can be a song from that particular film or something that just goes with the wavelength of the film; you listen to it, and it gives you that rhythm. I can’t articulate how it helps, but it somehow gives you an understanding of the character.
I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on summer humid nights and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives.
In the old days, people shared music; they didn’t care who made it. A song would be owned by a village, and anyone could sing it, change the words, whatever. That is how humans treated music until the late 19th century. Now, with the Internet, we are going back to having tribal attitudes towards music.
I feel like the theme song to ‘Duck Tales.’ ‘Life is like a hurricane; it’s a duck blur.’ That’s absolutely what it is.
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.
Sending greeting cards to aliens is hardly a new idea. In 2005, Craigslist solicited messages for broadcast to space by a transmitter in Florida, and in 2008, NASA beamed a Beatles song to the North Star (Polaris), on the assumption that any putative Polarians would appreciate the Fab Four’s 1960s-genre compositions.
I like to interpret ‘Call me a River’, as if I’m saying, ‘Now you’re telling me you love me after all that, and I’m telling you to shove off.’ That’s my interpretation. But I would never ‘say’ that because somebody else might interpret the song in another way.
I struggled with depression when I was in high school, and I remember thinking that if I got a record deal and got a hit song, that it would solve all those problems for me.
If you can’t play it on an acoustic guitar or a grand piano then it’s not a song.
There is a song called ‘I Refuse,’ and I get a bit scolding, I suppose, in a way. But it all comes back to elements of hope, and in the case of that song, it’s basically, ‘Okay, you’re trying to suck me into this world of negativity, and I’m not going to go there. I’m going to live my own life.’
My work is music. That’s why I could set to tune a song such as ‘Kathirunnu Kathirunnu.’
I was lucky enough to grow up in an era when radio was less formatted. It was really special. You could hear a jazz song then a pop song then a show tune then some jazz. Basically, whatever the DJ felt like playing, he would play. He was educating you and exposing you to things you would never hear otherwise.
Walt Whitman defended the sacredness of love, the purity of passion – the passion that builds every home and fills the world with art and song.
Without a song, each day would be a century.
‘Allegiance‘ is pretty much a book musical. You know, people talk and then they burst out into song.
Let’s get with it, guys: You don’t need to hear a Ministry song to get political. You should be political on your own. We’re just a side project to society. So do I care what people think about me personally? No. I just do what I do.
The thing is, my life is a country song. I don’t need to be manufactured, and I don’t need anyone to tell me what to say or what to sing.
I remember where I was when I first heard ‘Boyz N The Hood’ – 126th Street and Normandy, South Central, Los Angeles. I remember that I was on my porch. What they described in that song was so vivid and so clear to me because it was the kind of life I was used to witnessing and partly experiencing in my neighborhood.
When I was a little girl, my dream was just to hear my song on the radio. It was very fascinating to me, and I was like, ‘How do I do that?’ Now it’s like, ‘Oh my God, my song is on the radio!’
Dance music cannot compete with a really great rock n’ roll song. There ain’t no DJ that’s gonna play something that can take ‘Mr Brightside’ or ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger.’
I’ve woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I’m listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.
I don’t think a song should be put in a category.
Every time I sit for a song, I feel I am finished. It’s like a beggar sitting waiting for God to fill your bowl with the right thought. In every song, I ask help from Him. Everybody around is so good, so to create music that will connect with so many people is not humanly possible without inspiration.
I feel like I write so that people can think of it as theirs. If my song is exactly about your life right now, then it is – I don’t even want to say that it’s mine, because it’s yours.
I’d been playing Ted in the show for about a year as well as playing in the group in my spare time. Then, at the ‘Scrubs’ Christmas party, I offered to bring along the band to sing a song. The producers thought we were terrible – but perfect for the show.
My daughter, who is 7 years old – I have no idea where she learned this – she made a video where she’s beat-boxing. We have no idea where the beat-boxing came from, but all of a sudden, there it was. Now we’re launched into lyric sheets for every single song that is current. They’re all over our house.
Da Pak was a group out of Chicago. It was a put-together group. We actually met for the first time at this showcase. They were like ‘Yo, you should do a song together.’ So we did. It just so happened that the name of the song was ‘Wolf Pak.’ They said, ‘Y’all should be a group called Da Pak, and here’s a record deal.’
Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it, your body is doing math. The kids in their parents‘ garage practicing to be a band may not realize it, but they’re also practicing math.
You know, I always when people ask me, like, what is my most favorite song, I quote Duke Ellington, when they would ask him, what’s his favorite composition? And I say, I haven‘t written it yet. Because, you know, there are different songs for different occasions.
‘Hell Or High Water’ was written after the end of a relationship, and I do feel like every Passenger album has the obligatory break-up song.
I think people should be able to have at their behest, like, four hours of music, entertainment, visual knowledge, different pathways. That’s what I’m trying to do with modern technology, not just another song and another song.
The Beach Boys were my favorite. I use to listen to their hits over and over, especially ‘In My Room’ and ‘Don’t Worry Baby.’ There’s something really sad about ‘Don’t Worry Baby.’ Even though it’s just a California song about racing cars, the melody is really sad. There’s melancholy in it.
I wrote that song for my wife, and it’s what some guy who’s sitting under a tree would be singing to the woman of his life, telling her how wonderful she is. To me, that’s more lasting than something that sounds like it belongs on a movie soundtrack.
If Paul McCartney tells me that so-and-so song is his favorite song, what do I care? What do I care what anybody else says?
There are a couple different factors that play into the decision of which songs to cover. It could either be we’re really inspired by a song that’s just come out or inspired by an international classic, but either way we bring it to the band.
I’ve been fascinated by the Internet from the very start. In 2001, I had made a funny black-and-white film called ‘How to Dance Properly,’ a short video of me dancing to a Madonna song. I sent it to 17 of my friends on a Thursday, and by Monday, one million people a day were logging on to view it.
Music is a language in itself and the songs have their own soul, every song has its soul.
In The Go-Go‘s, my philosophy is that I contribute whatever the song requires. I never think, ‘What can I put in here to show off the latest trick that I just picked up?’ What I think is, ‘What’s required from me as a drummer to make this a better song?’
In pop or rock you can make a fast song or a slow one, but in disco there is really just the one rhythm.
One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.
In my off-time, I do record. Once in a while, I’ll just go into the studio if there’s a really good song that I have in my head and want to do. I think, as artists, you’re constantly in creative motion. If I stopped writing songs, then that’s a part of me that would stop in my life, and I need constant motion.
You go to a studio with a guitar, people are like, ‘Oh this girl’s going to write this song on a guitar.’ Or wants to, or whatever. You go with a ukulele, people are just like ‘Eh, well, whatever.’ They don’t really care. It’s a very non-threatening kind of instrument.
My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I’d like to think I did that.
My competition is always with my previous song. Each time I start working on a new track, I try to make it better than my last one.
My song in ‘Vaastav’ was my debut dance number.
In terms of the production, the style I use is what I see as the ‘Lisa Stansfield sound’ and I would hope that when anyone puts on one of my songs they don’t even have to listen to my voice to know this is a Lisa Stansfield song, because of the way it sounds.
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.
There’s probably a couple someones that are gonna hear the songs and go, ‘I think that might have been about me,’ or, ‘I know it’s about me.’ I do play that pretty close to the vest. I don’t think I’m ever gonna write a song and drop somebody’s name in it.
I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can’t really find a way to change those things.
Some people buy records just to dance to ’em. Some people buy records to listen to the radio. And there’s people that buy records ’cause they listen to every song.
As a musician I’m about expressing what’s inside, and I think everyone has a song in them that they need to get out, whatever their gig is.
The single ‘Tha Block Is Hot’ was a song that was true to life.
Today, I’d like to talk to Bob Marley. I’d just like to ask him what was his method. Bob is one of the greatest songwriters ever. I don’t know if people understand how powerful his songs are and the simplicity and genius behind them, from ‘Redemption Song’ to ‘Is This Love?’ and ‘I Shot the Sheriff.’
I grew up on Dilla, Timbaland, Pharrell, all these drums that are super pocketed, so all those influences come out on a song like ‘Ungrateful Eyes,’ with all the crazy drum swing.
When I’m writing a song for another artist, I purposefully make it not for me; otherwise, I get too attached.
I wouldn’t have a No. 1 record or song if I wasn’t a hardworking person.
That’s what my song ‘Medication‘ is about – everyone trying to make you a zombie.
I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record.
You can punch a wall or write a song. Just as painful either way, but you have something to show for it at the end of the day with a song.
I can remember when I was just, like, about four years old in Compton, and my mother would have me stack 45s, stack about ten of them, and when one would finish, the next record would drop. It was like I was DJ’ing for the house, picking out certain songs and so this song would go after that song.
The song ‘What Goes Up’ was inspired as I was playing the piano and reminiscing about the Spaceship One launches I witnessed in the Mojave desert. It is an awesome thing to comprehend the magnitude of what a human being dreams and imagines can be realized.
Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston, I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, ‘Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.’
The world is a song, but we do not know whether it is a good song because we have nothing to compare it with.
I always feel like every song is the last song.
‘Wrecking Ball’ is a great song.
Each song has its own way that it likes to be done, but it can be more than one way. If you tap into it, you can feel it.
I was telling people like ‘My Dawg’ gon’ be the song that get me out there. I knew it.
I don’t mean this in a stuck-up way, but I needed an attitude song.
I think the biggest way of connecting with people is through your music and kind of saying what you want to say as an artist. And hopefully, you’re making something that someone’s going to be like, ‘This is my favorite song.’ That’s always your goal, I think, anybody in any genre.
At times I have a beat first and then I write. Sometimes I have a melody in my head and I pick up the guitar to develop the song. Other times I just write without any melodies, and I end up using those lyrics when I think I have the appropriate instrumental that would bring out and depict the emotions of what I have written.
I think I’m alright as a lyricist, you know? But then what will happen every couple of months or so is that I’ll hear a song I’ve never heard before and feel I’ve gone right back to square one.
I think a good song is a good song is a good song.
My dad took me for an audition once, to show me, ‘OK, you want to be a child actor, this is what it’s like.’ I sang a folk song about donkeys on this West End stage with this big director, and there was a queue of 200 girls all singing ‘Memory.’ I was terrible. Terrible.
I think Bridge Over Troubled Water was a very good song. Artie sang it beautifully. The Boxer was a really nice record. But I don’t think I’ve written any great songs.
All men that date me have to know that their name may end up in a pop song.
When I was four, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.
Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.
Being from Philadelphia, ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ was a big deal – I have audio of my brother and me singing that song.
I made my first complete song when I was 9.
On stage, it’s very naked. There’s a reason you shake your knees. You’re very vulnerable, cos it’s just you, your body is the instrument. But I always had confidence in my voice, if I had the right song, the right words to sing.
I’m 18 in this album. I’m not losing fans, and I’m not disrepecting women, but you reach the maturity of taking it to the next level with a girl. It was only necessary for me to have at least one song like that.
You have to have that organizational principle behind the song.
When I was younger, I used to do that a lot: I would hear a part of a song that would really relax me and then put it on repeat. That would send me to sleep. It was quite obvious classical music, people like Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel.
I think the humor, when applied in the right amount, only serves to intensify the other emotions in a given song; it highlights them, makes them stand out.
‘Time after Time’ is one of the best pop songs ever written, in my opinion. It’s an incredible, beautiful, timeless song.
Finding fresh song topics can sometimes be quite difficult.
I have a passion for music, and I enjoy the process of expressing myself within the parameters of a pop song, and I don’t do it to seek anybody’s approval, necessarily. Obviously, you go on stage, and you enjoy it when people respond to a particular song, but the overall concept of playing music I do for myself.
My life’s far too complicated to be summed up in one song. It would take 20 just to represent one single day.
People will listen to a song and expect that you just have that persona on all the time. But really, that was your one outlet that one day to get that emotion out. The only difference was you put it on a canvas that’s going to be there forever.
Even though other people wrote my songs I put my stamp on them. I have a connection, but there is no truer connection than an artists and their own song.
If my life was a song the title would probably be ‘Clumsy’, ’cause I’m clumsy.
You don’t really know a song until you play it live.
Songwriting is a mysterious art. When I sit down to write a song, the end result should be mysterious and have this dark quality.
Making a record? You’ve got to have the song, then you create a record. I think it’s the same with a live performance. If the material is strong, you’re already 90% there. I always tell young people it’s all about the music, the songs. Work on the songs, work on the songs, work on the songs.
That’s a big gift when people say to you that a song helped them or brought them to some place in their life where they needed to be.
‘Friday‘ is about hanging out with friends, having fun. I felt like it was my personality in that song.
A lot of times, somebody will say something and it will give you a good title. So you carry a pencil with you and jot that down. You don’t just write a song right quick, though. You fool around and work with it. You have to keep going over and over it and see if you can’t write a song that means something.
There was a recording studio in my school, and I knew this kid who had a key, so I’d write lyrics in school while I was in class, and then, in a 10-minute break, I recorded the song ‘Hurt’ in one go at the school studio.
I’ve never made a bad song.
I don’t know if any genuine, meaningful change could ever result from a song. It’s kind of like throwing peanuts at a gorilla.
We really do believe that we can improve the world, one song at a time.
‘Finders Keepers‘ is guaranteed to create a vibe. If I’m having a difficult show, then I know I’ve got that song at the end to turn it around, and the phones will come out.
If I don’t relate to a song, I won’t sing it. The thing is that if I wrote it, I’m always going to relate to it.
By the time I got to record my first album, I was 26, I didn’t need pen or paper – my memory had been trained just to listen to a song, think of the words, and lay them to tape.
A Hard Day’s Night’ is the most perfect pop album you’ll ever get to hear in your life; it’s filled with definitive versions of the two-minute pop song.
The song ‘Hymnostic’ is kind of a gospel song, and that song is really fun to sing with as many people as possible. And anyone can sing it, you know?
I want to work with Song Joong Ki sunbae again who I worked with in ‘Vincenzo.’ I learned so many things from Song Joong-ki sunbae but it’s regrettable that we mainly filmed together only in the second half.
I close my eyes when I sing so I can feel the song better.
‘Do What You Gotta Do’ is a positive, inspirational song that says no matter what it is; whether you’re up against challenges or trying to get your dreams and aspirations met, you should do what whatever you have to do shy of killing yourself or someone else.
So where a lot of people will spend three weeks on one song, I will write 10 in three weeks. Maybe the song that they sculpt is going to be as successful as just one of the 10 that I wrote.
I’m not a folk or jazz singer, more a hard-edged pop singer – with some rock, and song hooks.
How shall we remember Mahatma Gandhi, that eternal pilgrim of freedom? Born of the very spirit of India, steeped in the tradition, the song, the legend of our ancient land – and yet he was revolutionary. Unique among revolutionaries, he marched for freedom, clad in the robe of truth, with non-violence for his staff.
‘Human’ was controversial within The Killers way before it was controversial to the rest of the world! It caused some problems within the band. Not to throw anybody under the bus, but it was pretty much me and Dave against Mark and Ronnie for a little while. We were standing up for the song.
Just because you like one song from an artist, that doesn’t make you a fan.
One of my favorite albums in the world is Bruce Springsteen‘s ‘Nebraska.’ Each song has this very distinct character who has something profound to say.
Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.
Wonderful Christmas Time’ is a Christmas song but it was supposed to be an attempt at a traditional song.
Once I come up with the concept, the rest of the song just comes.
I used to think that all my Wings stuff was second-rate stuff, but I began to meet younger kids, not kids from my Beatle generation, who would say, We really love this song.
I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometime terrifying experience, and I’ve enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other.
Just like using an instrument, a song calls for different things.
‘Sit Here and Cry’ was one of the first songs I wrote with that overdramatic sarcastic dry sense of humor, which is why the energy of the song doesn’t necessarily reflect the subject matter.
If I like a song, I’ll just keep playing it, and it never gets old.
To me, the lyrics of the song define the kind of style it is.
For us, we make a song, and if we like it, it goes on a record.
‘A Pirate Looks at 40,’ we had to do that song. I’ve been covering that forever.
A true friend is someone who is always there during the ups and downs, I actually have a song called ‘True Friend’.
‘It’s Everyday Bro’ started with me talking about the things I do on a day-to-day basis. From there, the creativity was unleashed, and the song was the result.
The great thing about a song is that no one has to know your story. But if you tell it in a way that has clarity and means something to somebody else, then it can apply to their story.
I’m just looking for that one song that I know everybody’s going to be like, ‘Damn, that’s a good song.’
Item song dancers like Silk Smitha and Jayamalini have become irrelevant. The heroines are doing those dances themselves.
Considering the amount of information we’re bombarded by, it’s amazing if a song can transcend time.
There’s nothing worse than being stuck with a bad song.
In 2012, I dropped a song called ‘Like To Party,’ and that just took me all over the world.
Melody is the single most important thing to any song, period. I don’t care what anybody says, it trumps everything. Not because that’s my opinion but because I think it’s actually indisputable fact. The human brain retains melody easier than it retains words. It’s that simple.
That’s why ‘Chandelier’ was interesting to me… I wrote the song because there’s so many party-girl anthems in pop. And I thought it’d be interesting to do a different take on that.
I admit I do have some drawbacks and limitations as a candidate. Although I am a professional comedian, some of my critics maintain that this is not enough. I cannot deny that I stand before you untested and inexperienced – I only spent two years in television, never as a romantic lead or a song and dance man.
I can write a song in about an hour if it’s a simple country song.
The first time I tried to write was when I was 14, after I got an electric guitar. I put a song together, and it wasn’t that bad! The writing came natural to me.
I also just accept that I might never want to write a song again.
You can only follow what’s on your mind. In fact, a song is something you write because you can’t sleep unless you write it.
I guess a good song is a good song is a good song, ya know.
Recording a song for a film doesn’t take much time; it’s hardly an hour’s job, but concerts are constant, and so is travelling, so I’ve to take time out to work on my albums because I’m passionate about creating my own music. When you love something dearly, you set your priorities accordingly.
I’m from the disco era where everybody thought they were John Travolta… What song is going to get me on the dance floor? Anything from ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ and you’re up there like a demon.
I don’t think you could pull one Bob Marley song that didn’t have quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament.
To write a good song, an artist has to drawn from reality. There has to be some spark from realism that communicates a real feeling to someone else. You have to be real. Or you have to be a really good storyteller.
My favorite Bob Dylan record is the very first one where he sings one Bob Dylan song and the rest of them are his interpretations of the Dust Bowl-era folk songs, or even going back as far as the mass influx of people coming into the U.S. during the gold rush. His interpretations of those songs are incredible.
I write songs about stuff that I can’t really get past personally – and then I write a song about it and I feel better.
When the Beatles wrote ‘Paperback Writer,’ it couldn’t have been the same old thing. You can hear so many influences in it, from the blues to Bach, and it’s not just verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge chorus. They start off singing a cappella, almost like a Bach chorale, and the song goes into this bluesy guitar riff.
You can cage the singer but not the song.
I’ve never done anything so political before. I’ve spent years shouting my mouth off about serious issues over dinner tables but never really had the confidence to express my views in a song.
I’m not the type of guy to go so deep with the concept songs, but there’s deep thought in everything. Maybe it’s not just a repetitive hook telling you what the song is about – you have to use your brain a little bit.
A bell‘s not a bell ’til you ring it, A song’s not a song ’til you sing it, Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay, Love isn’t love ’til you give it away!
As an independent artist, there can be nothing better than the fact that your song will be played and heard in different corners of the world.
Whenever I meet children’s parents, they complain that the kids don’t sleep until they listen to my whistle baja song! My songs have captivated the kids.
A song is anything that can walk by itself.
When I met Michael Jordan on a basketball court at an athletic club – we hooped together in Chicago – he came to me and asked me if I wanted to do a song for his upcoming movie. I was like, ‘Yeah!’ I didn’t even ask what it was.
The ‘Raining Gold’ video naturally took on one of the messages behind the song, which is you should never assume anything about someone or a situation just because it looks a certain way on the surface.
I was at a picnic, and there were a lot of songwriters. I remember praying, ‘God I wish you would give me a song.’ About five minutes later, my ears popped, and I saw everybody in slow motion. Nobody knew what I was experiencing.
Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.
Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.
When you’re making music, it’s meant to be shared with people. Sometimes, even if I’m writing a song, someone else brings a vibe. There’s something different about it. If someone can play a better bassline than me, I’ll let them do it. I’m just here to fit in and see where it goes.
I’m a song and dance girl. I can act enough to get by. But that’s the limit of my talents.
The longer one is alone, the easier it is to hear the song of the earth.
I auditioned for a solo in church and got it. I was about seven and I sang a song called, ‘Jesus, I Heard You Had a Big House‘ and I remember people standing up at the end and me thinking, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to like this.’ That’s how it all began. Sounds funny to say you got your start in church, but I did.
‘My Name Is’ by Eminem was a song that changed my life.
I think anything that’s creative really takes my mind off whatever it is that I’m going through in my life. If you’re going through heartbreak, and you can write a song, it’s a wonderful win-win, because it takes your mind off the heartbreak, and you get to vent.
A lot of people say ‘Boo’d Up’ reminds them of ’90s R&B. It has that feeling, which is why I think people take to the song so much.
I just write a song, and it just comes out however it wants to. And some of them are catchy songs like ‘Here Comes The Sun,’ and some of them aren’t, you know.
I don’t really have a favorite genre. I could listen to a rock song, a metal song, jazz, pop music, whatever. For me, whatever style it is, it always depends on the chord progression, the lyrics, and the melody used.
Music is a diary. Sometimes people make music as if no one’s going to hear it, as if they can just be completely honest. Things are a lot more acceptable said in a song than it would be in person. Art excuses a lot of things.
Singing is a way of releasing an emotion that you sometimes can’t portray when you’re acting. And music moves your soul, so music is the source of the most intense emotions you can feel. When you hear a song and you’re acting it’s incredible. But when you’re singing a song and you’re acting it’s even more incredible.
The first song I wrote was called ‘Here I Go Falling In Love‘ I wrote it in the sixth grade.
It was a fabulous time, doing ‘Hear My Song.’
‘Something Good‘ is a feel-good song. A reminder that you’re dope and have something wonderful to offer life and yourself and the world.
When I sit down to write a song, it’s a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I’m about to do.
I wrote a song on the record called ‘Flawed Design‘ and it’s basically looking at that, and it was just exploring how everybody obviously has flaws. I think to embrace those flaws – enjoy them, embrace them – and actually be a real person is something that a lot of people struggle with, myself included.
Gunna ain’t never wrote no song for me. He just showed me how to rap.
A good song is a good song whatever your age.
It’s terrifying to play your favorite band’s song in front of your favorite band.
I lost my brother in a car wreck when I was 14 years old. When I decided I wanted to be a country singer, my dad always told me, ‘Son, you should write a song about your brother.’
I think my all time favourite song would be between ‘Slow Dancing in a Burning Room’ and ‘Dreaming with a Broken Heart‘ by John Mayer.
I didn’t choose a word or anything. I just wrote the song until it stopped.
The type of music I make, it’s not just straight-up rapping. There’s emotion in it. That’s why people feel each song differently. I get all my vibes from rock music, you know? All my melodies and all that.
It is a very serious consideration for a lyricist to step in there and suggest the meaning to a song. The music is speaking for itself.
Salman Khan gave me a break, and that proved to be a boon. By the grace of God, my first song was a blockbuster.
Now, performing is second nature and I love every second of it. It is a very emotional thing when I can’t play a song; maybe I’m hitting on something that I don’t want to deal with. All of it is so personal. It is like therapy.
When I hear myself singing, I hear Iggy Pop and Jimi Hendrix. There’s a conversational thing going on. I suppose it depends on which The Pretenders song you’re listening to.
The day I write a totally happy song… I’ll retire.
The reason I play music is to touch people – for selfish reasons, as well. It feels good to make someone else feel something, whether it’s a kiss, a painting, good idea or it’s a song.
‘Pretty Lady’ is the conversation piece where you just need to compliment your lady. If you are in a club setting, and you just been eyeing a beautiful woman, this song came from me trying to compliment women and them turning their face up at me.
You may not hear much bluegrass on the surface of my music, but I feel the emotion I put in a song comes from bluegrass. Bluegrass taught me to interpret a song, not just sing it.
A good song should give you a lot of images; you should be able to make your own little movie in your head to a good song.
I guess the point of that song ‘Troublemaker, Doppelganger’ is trying to navigate the worth of beauty and if it’s hurtful or helpful to value beauty. If it’s a curse or a blessing. Is that something really negative and morbid, like the hearse, or is it the limousine – a glamorous symbol of enjoying life?
I’ve been told that ‘Midnight at the Oasis‘ has been responsible for the conception of more children than any other song of the ’70s.
I had a really great performance with Steven Tyler in the movie ‘Be Cool.’ I performed ‘Cryin’,’ so we recorded the song beforehand. But I didn’t get to meet him until I hit the stage with him, and we had a live performance with 30,000 people in the audience, and that was for the movie.
I really believe it’s not bad to look back within music. I don’t mean retro, but using your own memories to make a song because our memories are what make us who we are.
You can make a hit song in 15 minutes. I don’t know about someone else’s song, but songs that people like of mine, I’ve created in 15 minutes or less.
I was just in the middle of singing a song about how broke we were and now my cell phone rings.
I sang ‘Your Song’ by Elton John, and Silva Screen Records were watching. They got in touch with my agent then had the idea of the Christmas album.
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.
You’ve got a song you’re singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too. They’ve got to be able to relate to what you’re doing.
When you first start writing a song, it’s fun, then when you start recording it, it’s fun, but by the time you’ve finished recording it, you’re sick of it.
I was telling people like ‘My Dawg’ gon’ be the song that get me out there. I knew it.
The song ‘Baby Baby,’ I so love that song because I wrote it about my first daughter.
‘Wild Horses’ is my favourite Stones song. It’s so beautiful. I don’t mind that it was written for Bianca.
When I make a song, I’m really happy. It’s an indescribable feeling.
One of my side strange abilities is to hear a good song, no matter how it’s being performed. Even if you get a bad performance, I can still hear that there’s a good song.
The song ‘Gave It All Away’ has a reggae sound.
One of the disadvantages of poetry over popular music is that if you write a pop song, it naturally gets into people’s heads as they listen in the car. You don’t have to memorize a Paul Simon song; it’s just in your head, and you can sing along. With a poem, you have to will yourself to memorize it.
I guess I’m rather self-destructive, and I like to give other people who are self-destructive a song to sing.
‘Spring Day’ – I wrote main lyrics based on my personal experience with old friends. It is about my sad memories with him, and it makes me sentimental whenever I listen to the song.
Even when I was calling myself the Microphones I only really ever played new songs… because I feel, like, a pretty strong connection to the song when I’m performing it.
When you hear people scream because they’re about to hear a song that has been a part of their life, there’s nothing like that.
I used to listen to that song, ‘I just wanna be successful!’ I was like, ‘I’ma be where bruh at.’ I used to watch him on ‘Degrassi.’
I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.
Alan Cumming was such a fun guy to watch. I remember he has a song in the first ‘Spy Kids’ movie, and when Danny Elfman came to set, they were working on the song.
I like books that aren’t just lovely but that have memories in themselves. Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time.
My daughter, Charlotte Strawbridge, has recorded an album, and my favourite song from that is ‘Empires Made Of Sand.’
I’m definitely not going to go and sing a song that condones certain things.
When Billie Holiday sings a song, I hear the song, but I always hear her and her truth.
Every song has a composer, every book has an author, every car has a maker, every painting has a painter, and every building has a builder. So it isn’t irrational to take this simple logic a little further and say that nature must have had a Maker. It would be irrational to believe that it made itself.
It was a privilege to direct the music video for Adele’s beautiful, heartbreaking song, ‘Hello.’ When I first heard it, all the images appeared clearly in my head – and her trust and generosity allowed me to work with abandon artistically and emotionally, like she always does. It made me extremely proud.
Came from a song that I made from, like, 2012 – there was some phrase like ‘Rap Monster‘, and I just, I thought it was so cool. But as I grow up, and as I came to America, I think it felt like too much. So I just abbreviated it to ‘RM’, and it could symbolize many things. It could have more spectrums to it.
Like an opera singer, I am able to sing out my song in paint.
You always will be singing a song or humming a line or a melody.
Women stand for the objective world for a man. They stand for the thing that you’re not and that’s what you always reach for in a song.
U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don’t really know what we’re doing and when we do, it doesn’t seem to help.
The song, ‘Life is Better,’ is about hip-hop. It’s about my love for hip-hop. And, you know, I go through all the artists from the beginning to the end, you know. And, well, not to the end, but since the beginning to now, you know.
I’m all about telling stories. I like people to picture the music video in their head when they’re just listening to the song.
It’s an enthralling experience to be in front of the mic and record a song.
If we were to put out a song in English, we would have to put in lots and lots of effort.
One Roman Catholic School I will never forget. They sang a song to receive me. Part of the words were, ‘Thank you, Lord, for giving us Terry.’ It was beautiful; it really brought tears to my eyes.
To me, it’s all about the song. Songs are what make me excited. You hear a great song and you want to record it or get a great idea and you want to write it.
The funny thing is, people’s perceptions of what a song is about is usually wrong a majority of the time. But they’re still going to read what they want to into it.
One of the first places where I started to respond to song lyrics was in reggae music. A lot of what I was responding to were references to the Old Testament. It was not that I had to adapt the lyrics to the sound. Reggae and the Old Testament are bound up together. There wasn’t anything that I had to do.
If my life had to be a song I would name it, ‘Live every day like its your best day ever’, because it pretty much is.
I’ve always listened to music while I write, but none of my work has been so directly impacted by a song as my new novel, ‘So Cold the River,’ for which the brilliant strings piece ‘Short Trip Home,’ composed by Edgar Meyer and featuring the incredible Joshua Bell on violin, inspired much of the story.
A true friend is someone who is always there during the ups and downs, I actually have a song called ‘True Friend’.
Bottom line: Black men like curves. When they’re crooning to women about how beautiful they are in an R&B song, the ladies you see in the video don’t reflect what those guys like.
Having a child with someone, you’re always going to be respectful of that. But the song ‘I Bet’ was honestly inspired by my life experiences – I can’t just say it’s from one experience.
I wrote my first song at 12 and remember someone asking, ‘What were you going through at 12 that you could write about?’ I get what you’re saying, but 11, 12, 13 were the hardest years of my life. You learn everything. You learn how horrible things feel.
That’s the amazing thing about music: there’s a song for every emotion. Can you imagine a world with no music? It would suck.
I think there’s a good pop song in pretty much anything.
The issue I had with the Lightspeed albums was that usually the main purpose with them was to fulfil really dorky musical goals, like, ‘I wonder if I can do that,’ and it was all very personal. It was more that once I’d finished the goal of what the song was, I was kind of done. It was like ticking boxes.
Silence is more musical than any song.
I think it shows when you have to work too hard on a song.
By the time I’m in the studio recording my parody, 10,000 parodies of that song are on YouTube.
When I was 15 or 16 playing in groups, we used to sit in the car and try to write the lyrics down as a song was playing, and we’d assign each person a verse, you know: ‘I’m going to do the first one. You go for the second one.’ And then sometimes you’d wait an hour for it to come on again so you could finish it up.
I got this book called ‘How to Write the Popular Song.’ I read that and went through all the things they suggested, and I learned how to do it.
A good song has to have a great melody, and the lyrics have to touch my heart. Now, if it’s just a little toe-tapper, got to make me feel good somehow or another, or when I sing it I can’t make you feel good.
I’m not sure it’s a better music world of appreciation and performance. I think the listener is a different guy, and listening is something he does in passing, with other stuff going on. There’s less care and understanding of the relationship between the song and the listener.
I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.
The fundamental human truth underpinning ‘Ox Mountain Death Song’ is that men so very often turn into their fathers. The way that everything gets passed down.
Then all of a sudden, Quentin Tarantino comes along and puts a song from 40 years ago in one of his films and they’ve suddenly discovered you. That was a real gift that Quentin gave me.
I haven’t made anything I don’t believe in. I’ve always started a movie with a song in my heart, and even when I’m a little unclear about it, something magical happens and it comes into focus in a way that I’m feeling good about.
I think when you have raw emotion in a song, it makes it great.
The coolest part about ‘God Made Girls’ is you had all these different women writing it, so you had all these different perspectives in this song.
I honestly think that with every song you release you have to keep winning your own fans over again.
Think about when you listen to a song on the radio. You are not paying for it; it’s not illegal to do it, because the rights have been paid for on top, beforehand, by the radio station, by the network. We have to find exactly the same kind of system with the Internet.
I love pop music. It’s not easy to write a good pop song.
I remember when I would write a song as a kid, I would also write out on paper what the drums would do, what the bass would do, and what the vocals would be doing.
Three chords and the truth – that’s what a country song is.
I didn’t used to do shows, because I used to be so shy. We’d perform, and I’d be at the back, thinking of another song. I was so shy, I ain’t never getting in front of the camera; I would never get on stage.
Widespread Panic discovered a couple of my songs and started doin’ ’em on the gigs. They’d take a song and expand it and everybody plays a long time and people really like that. But I made my living as a songwriter so I try to get to singin’ and get it over with.
I’ve always had a fascination with pirates. You know, I’ve written a song completely inspired by I want this to feel like pirates, you know, fighting together, made a music video about it, yada, yada.
I love the song ‘Into the Night.’ It’s Roy Orbison meets David Lynch meets Iggy Pop on amphetamines. It has a punk edge that is not HIM, per se. It is super melodic and super ’60s, and that is very new to me and it is a sense of achievement to me.
I see friends who are in different genres of music, and they say they’re so burnt playing the same stuff every night. That’s why you see a country act wanting to go out and play an old classic rock song. But what cracks me up is that they all want to be Jimmy Buffett. I can’t figure that out.
Every song that is a Hopsin song, I 100 percent made it. Nobody helped me. There was no producer to say, ‘Hey, put the beat like this… ‘ It was all me. If the song was wack, then the song was wack. If it’s dope, it is what it is.
I have to be inspired to write a song.
When we cover a Chainsmokers song in our live show with ZBB, people are dancing and going crazy.
The buzz you get when you’re playing a song and everyone is screaming and dancing and what have you and singing along is incredible.
‘Firecracker’ was such a fun song to write and to perform.
After a dark, violent age, the Piscean, we are entering a millennium of love and light in the words of the popular song the ‘Age of Aquarius,’ the time of the mind’s true liberation.
I don’t think there’s any danger of me playing Indian music. However, I did a song of George Harrison’s ‘Beware of Darkness‘ that was kind of like that. That was an illusion. I was playing that on a thumbtack piano, and Jim Gordon was playing tablas. He’s an amazing player. That was as close to India as I ever got.
There was a time when pop music and rock music were really reaching for the stars and were not ashamed to be experimental. You think of a song like ‘Shout’ by Tears for Fears. That’s a massive global No. 1 hit, and yet the subject matter is very dark.
Once you have an established song, you can really come out of your shell and experiment with the sound you want to make.
I want every song on it to be a hit.
With ‘Start With Me,’ I sent it to Gunna and he sent it right back. I didn’t have to ask him. If I send you a song, you gonna vibe to it and if you don’t, it’s cool.
When I record somebody else’s song, I have to make it my own or it doesn’t feel right. I’ll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn’t know it!
I would never purposely sing a song about someone I love, I wouldn’t want to embarrass them. But for someone I don’t like… I would definitely do that.
Seven’ is this kind of nostalgic, emotional folk song.
A DJ can’t just play one song. It’s about playing a set, or how you connect songs in those two hours, and where you place them.
I have a younger brother and sister who actually play in my band, and we were always into Disney music, big time. The first time I heard myself sing was when I recorded myself singing a Disney song. I remember it because it was awful, and I didn’t expect to hear that. I think it was ‘A Whole New World‘ from ‘Aladdin.’
‘Turn to Stone’ was written about the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War and the protesting that was going on and all of that. It’s a song about frustration. Also, I attended Kent State.
Flawed Design’ is a song on the record and it explores why people feel a need to present themselves maybe not necessarily as what they actually are. It seems like in society, a lot of people want to be or try to be perfect.
When you hear me, you know it’s me, regardless of the song.
A good song takes on more meaning as the years pass by.
It’s such a cycle. You’ll see a rapper drop a song, and next thing you know, he’s gone.
I’m very proud of ‘Will the Sun Ever Shine Again.’ That was a song written very close to the 9/11 event.
Portishead’s production is just insane beats you would expect to be on a KRS-One album. But then there’s this little white girl with an angel voice singing over it. It was a cool juxtaposition. I like ‘It’s A Fire.’ That’s a chill song with kind of a military drum thing going on, like a drummer boy.
‘If You Could Read My Mind’ is a different experience every time I sing it. It’s just that kind of a song.
A Herd of Turtles’ is the only song on ‘Behold Electric Guitar’ that is not strictly instrumental. But instead of singing, I am reciting a poem. My poem is about overcoming challenges.
Whether I am performing for an elite crowd or a crowd of 20,000 people – the moment someone asks for ‘Agneepath,’ and I respond ‘Agneepath’ chahiye?’ the noise in the crowd, shows that this song has become huge.
It’s of course important to mention that when DJing, I’m building my own story through the music. I’m figuring out what song to play next, what song to play after that, and how the two will blend together. How the emotion is going to develop from one song to another. So I first build that storyline.
I think every good song tells a story, as ambiguous and vague as it may be. And if you know what a song is talking about, it can only help your performance.
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
In every song I write, whether it’s a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing that I find is feeling lost and trying to find your way.
I’ve got a song on every album, two songs as a matter of fact on every album without Auto-Tune, and that’s the song that nobody talks about. It’s weird.
If I want to do song and dance, I will and I would like to but I don’t want to do it in every film. Where is the novelty then? It just takes the fun out of work for me.
Right from day one, you know when you’ve written a good song.
Usually, one of us will bring a song to the group that they think we could arrange and perform well. If the group agrees, we arrange it. It doesn’t always work out though. We’ve tried to arrange a few songs that just we ended up canning in the end.
There’s nothing like a good cheating song to make me want to run home to be with my wife.
When you write a song, it may come from a personal space, but it very seldom actually represents you. It comes out of a sort of mood of melancholy, somehow. It’s almost theatrical.
Life is a song – sing it. Life is a game – play it. Life is a challenge – meet it. Life is a dream – realize it. Life is a sacrifice – offer it. Life is love – enjoy it.
I woke up one morning with this song in my head, and the opening line of the song is, ‘My name was Richard Nixon, only now I’m a girl.’
I wouldn’t go so far as to make ‘You Don’t Own Me’ a tango or ‘It’s My Party’ a hip-hop thing. Believe me, those things have been suggested to me. But I thought if I could stay true to the song, the arrangements would work. I’m really enjoying singing them.
The comedians all finished their acts with a song. They would get a certain amount of money from the song publishers and would use that money to pay the writers. None of them paid very much for their comedy material, but it all added up.
Even if I don’t release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential.
People knew that I was a disciple of Sivaji Ganesan and wanted to honour his memory. In fact, I did a movie and play adaptation of ‘Vietnam Veedu,’ and used the song ‘Un Kannil Neer Vadinthal’ as part of the play.
I find it really easy to write on the bass, because you kind of get straight to the point: you do lyrics and melody without thinking about decorating the song until after you’ve finished it.
In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.
If you hear a good song, it makes you hopeful like, ‘That is out there.’
Never hate a song that’s sold a half million copies.
Honestly, are we ever going to get over ‘California Girls’ by Katy Perry? I know it’s old, but that song – I love that song!
I used to listen to that song, ‘I just wanna be successful!’ I was like, ‘I’ma be where bruh at.’ I used to watch him on ‘Degrassi.’
I still believe in hope and that a good song will push itself.
My mom is a very religious woman. So when I began recording music, I was afraid she wouldn’t accept it. But when I played her a song, she loved it.
I wanna be able to stand on the stage and hold out the mic and people sing all the lyrics to my song.
I can’t force myself to make up a song. Music comes to me naturally.
I wrote ‘Fight Song’ as this declaration to believe in myself, and that is similar to what you are taught to believe in Girl Scouts. Building confidence. Building character. And above all else, being there for each other as a community.
I don’t have time to stand around and listen to an 11-minute song.
My favorite song that I wrote is ‘Love Line.’ This was my first song that I wrote lyrics for, and I really wanted to express the feeling when you’re in love and hoping the other person feels the same way.
As a musician and a guitar player, I can noodle as well as anybody. But from my background as a session musician, I always try to play what is called for by the lyric and listening to the song. As a writer, that’s what I do, too.
Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‘artist’ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists – Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West – are doing the most.
I never had huge amounts of money when I was young. I had huge amounts of fame, and I always had the sense of labor and recompense. I always said I don’t want to work for pay, but I want to get paid for my song.
When I get into the studio, it’s not about trying to get a good song, it’s about whatever comes naturally.
I didn’t know how to play guitar until I was 21, but from the moment I was good enough on guitar to even put one song together, I kind of billed myself as an artist.
When I create a song, I immediately think about what I’m going to wear when I perform that song. I think about the music video treatment and about how I’m going to look on stage when I perform the record. The connection is so obvious that it’s a single package. An outfit, to me, is almost a tool to express the music.
Anytime an artist puts your name in a song, it’s unbelievable. It never gets old.
When it comes to song creation, I throw in my ideas and have it discussed with the producer. The song gets its own characteristic as new ideas are incorporated.
Most people who ask me what’s my favorite song, expect that it’s ‘Midnight Train’ or ‘Neither One of Us.’ But actually, it’s always kinda been ‘The Need to Be’ because of what it says. I love the way that song was written, I love the melody, I love everything about it.
Strangely enough, when the Sugababes’ ‘Freak Like Me’ went to number 1, which was built around my ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric’ song, I had another song called ‘Rip’ go to number 1 in the Kerrang TV chart, so I was pulling new people in from very different areas of musical interest. That was quite an amazing week.
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.
I’d love to work with Tweet. She’s my favorite singer, and I’d love to do a song with her even though she’s out of my league.
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.
When it comes to independent music albums, you cannot put in 50 lakhs or a crore in each and every song to first make a video and then even promote it. It’s not possible for a musician or a singer to promote each song. It’s not possible for musicians to do that independently.
I’m not sure how young kids get to the point where they’re memorizing and knowing songs, but I knew the words to ‘Missing You’ from John Waite probably from when I was three years old. For whatever reason, that was the song that I gravitated toward when it was on the radio and I was driving around with my mom.
You can lose people without them dying, and I have, from moving, from traveling. The emotion is real, it just doesn’t actually have to do with death. I’m singing about what I know, and it’s a song about longing for somebody who’s disappeared in your life.
I always knew ‘My Dawg’ would be a hit, but I didn’t even know what a hit was. When I made the song I knew it sounded hard.
I remember I took a music course in junior year of high school, and some girl brought in ‘Teardrops On My Guitar,’ and she was like, ‘Isn’t this song great?’ And everyone was like, ‘Who’s Taylor Swift?’ And now, every time I listen to Taylor Swift, I remember that moment.
Don’t just listen to my songs; listen to any song which you feel would make a change in your life.
A close-up on screen can say all a song can.
I wrote a techno song after I was deported. I was in America for a little bit, but then I was deported back to Germany. I was very sad.
For me, my favorite Mariah Carey songs were never the singles, ever. My favorite Mariah song of all time is ‘Sent From Up Above’ from her first album, or ‘Vanishing,’ songs no one talks about.
If I would make a song dedicated to any woman, it would have to be my mom because, you know, she’s been there since I came out of her. She would have to be the one… my mom or my daughter.
Once at the White House I was asked to conduct the Drum and Bugle Corp. The man just handed me the baton and I finished the song. It was great. I got to keep the baton.
The jazz rhythm won’t be understood by the bulk of my audience. That’s the problem. We can get away with maybe one tune a night. It depends on where we place it. A song like ‘Beyond the Sea,’ the fans love that. It’s fresh.
Crossfire’s done very well. I knew it was a great song, but I didn’t know it would be so big.
When I get up there, maybe I’m nervous for the first song, but then I get into it. It’s a lot of fun to stand up there. I always enjoy the moment when I’m actually standing on stage. When I’m done, I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to play one more song.’
Well, I make every song I sing personal. I’ve never chosen a song that wasn’t.
It’s hard enough to sit at a table and talk to most people as it is. But we can go to some town, and there’s 300 people we’ve never met before, and by the third song, we’re connecting with everyone in that room.
You have to learn how to act a pop song. You have to find the balance of the pop from the pop song and the lyrical significance of the scene you are in.
It was just the next logical step from making succinct pop songs. What do you do after that? You make pop songs that are longer and more epic, that push the envelope. Imagine your favourite song, or something that you play over and over in the car, except that you don’t have to start it over as much.
I’m a producer first, and I know music, so I can jump on any song, whether it’s pop or urban, without changing me. Whatever I do, I’m gonna make it classic.
I feel like ‘Beware’ is a heartfelt song – it’s something that is definitely a story, something that I cultivated from personal stories, some from just other stories in just wanting to make a good song.
I think when you sign a recording deal, you think, ‘I’m going to put out a song and have a hit right away. I’ll be a giant superstar. I can take over the world now.’ But I put out a song, and it did OK. It wasn’t like leaps and bounds.
I’m the smart aleck. The class clown. I’m the guy who does the song nobody expects.
I don’t have to be working on an album to record a song.
A song is a burden that you carry happily.
It’s not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn’t sing you a song: it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide? Or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day?
I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.
A lot of country music is sad. I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times. It applies to music. Three chords and the truth – that’s what a country song is. There is a lot of heartache in the world.
When I was a teenager, my dad used to call me ‘Hollywood’ because I wore sunglasses all the time, even at night. Cue song.
That’s the miracle of music. No one can reinterpret a Picasso, but a song can be remixed and covered and interpreted in an infinite number of ways. It’s a living thing.
I knew ‘Ojuelegba’ was a good song, but I didn’t expect it to blow up the way that it did.
I think most bands probably peak on their first album. We peaked on our third album. On the first album, I feel like I wish the production was a little better. I’ll always hear a song I don’t like. I look for what I could have done to make it better. It’s always difficult for me to listen.
Usually, when I’m rappin’, I’m creating a big story or a concept song that sounds like a movie to me.
When I did ‘1,2,3,4’ on ‘Sesame Street’ they’d rewritten the song and made it about counting. At first, I balked. I was like, ‘Counting to four? That’s where we’re going with this?’ Then they sent me appearances by other people like James Blunt doing ‘You’re Beautiful’ as ‘My Triangle.’
Piracy was kind of hard: It took a few minutes to download a song. It was kind of cumbersome. You had to worry about viruses. It’s not like people want to be pirates. They just want a great experience.
Music is a powerful tool in galvanizing people around an issue. There’s no better way to get your point across than to put it in a beautiful song.
To the audience, it’s like I’m changing the subject every five seconds, but to me, my show’s almost like a 90-minute song that I know exactly. I wrote every note, and I know exactly where everything is.
I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.
My favorite thing to do as a kid was pretend I was in the opening credits of a sitcom. As the theme song would play, I’d look up at the imaginary camera and smile as my name would flash on the screen.
It should take you 15 minutes to make a song, and then get out of there.
Initially, I’d written a normal love song. Later, I wrote Corona Kannala.’ I say cheesy because we used a lot of contemporary references.
If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you.
Timbaland’s so wishy-washy sometimes – he’ll hate a song at first and then love it, and then maybe go back to not liking it as much as something else.
