I spent ninety percent of my money on wine, women and song and just wasted the other ten percent.
If my life were a song it would be called 'Don't Stop Believing'. Yeah.
It's a little gross to put yourself in every song. I mean, how interesting do people really think you are?
If the chords change a lot over the course of a song, it's better to stay within the same melodic structure.
Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end.
I should say that I usually have a good experience on Amtrak. Still, if Amtrak could replace electric horns with steam whistles, they could make big strides. A horn is a horn is a horn, but a steam whistle is a voice and a song. People used to know which engineer was running which engine based on the call of the whistle.
When you find a song that you love, you just have to do it - why would I try to match it? When I wrote more of the songs in the '90s - 'Nick of Time' and other songs I was surprised I came up with - it was because nobody else was saying what I wanted to say.
I think that's what makes my music different from other artists in my lane is that I write every word that's on my album, and every word comes from a real experience or a real feeling that I've either experienced or felt. And I'm very particular about that, and I take a lot of pride in it, so you know if I say something on a song, I mean it.
We've been able to have our cake and eat it, too. Every song, every T-shirt, is absolutely a pure expression of what we want to do. And it connects.
If I get an idea for a song, I have a melody for it. I'm a musician first. I'm not limited by the fretboard.
Taylor Swift dates guys so she can write a breakup song about them. I don't think she's dating for love - I think she's dating for creativity. So let's get her off the market and put her in dating detox. If she really wants love, she has to stop writing music about them.
I made my first complete song when I was 9.
I learned early in my writing career that if I try to tailor a song for someone else, I'm usually off base. They're usually looking for something from you with your character.
I always say it took me 10 minutes to write 'Cars,' but if I am honest it could have been even less than that - and it has been a really successful song over the years. It is still massively used, in advertising, in films, and people do cover versions of it a lot.
Music can help you through any kind of emotion. It can help you through a break-up, make you dance, or help you realize or understand something about yourself... and if I can sing a song and make someone feel those things then I will feel like I have made a difference.
I guess a good song is a good song is a good song, ya know.
I'm not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.
It is hard work composing a song for a film and showing it to makers: 50% of the tune remains the same, and the remaining 50% is changed to suit the script.
You can say things a million times, but if you can't sing it, then it really isn't much of a song.
When I'm in a songwriting phase, it's a phase. I don't just suddenly feel inspired and then write a song, because I always write with a co-writer.
When we study Shakespeare on the page, for academic purposes, we may require all kinds of help. Generally, we read him in modern spelling and with modern punctuation, and with notes. But any poetry that is performed - from song lyric to tragic speech - must make its point, as it were, without reference back.
At the end of the day, you sign a record deal and you understand where it could go if you had the right song.
The first song is called 'London.' It's about two Russian soldiers who desert the Russian army and escape to London, where they indulge in a life of crime.
If my life was a song the title would probably be 'Clumsy', 'cause I'm clumsy.
When I get bored, I'll zone out, and I'll just sit in front of my computer and start writing any random song that comes to mind.
The song that makes me the happiest when someone sings it is Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time.'
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.
The way I like to start a new project is to take a cover song and make a stab at it, ideally one that has nothing to do with the people in the room.
I'm competitive with anyone who writes a good song - I don't care if it's a band or solo artist or whoever.
It is very unnatural to dance while playing the violin. I had to practice so hard to learn how to do it, but now it is part of my expression, and it comes naturally. I have to know a song perfectly before I can even begin to move.
I love the script and I just thought it was a great role. Like I say, it's like this - the script is like this sad, funny, desperate love song to the lost American man.
'Life, Love & Hope' is... I'm thinking 'larger picture.' I'm not trying to preach to anyone. We all get lost and caught up in our everyday problems. Your cellphone doesn't work or you got a parking ticket, you had a bad day at work. You can lose sight of the really important things in life; that's what the song is about.
The story behind every song is individual to itself.
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.
The one hit song that I have tremendous gratitude for is Boots, because it has a life of its own. It's like being identified with a brand name.
Back when I was jamming with Axl and the guys they had boxes of cassettes with song ideas. How do you know which ones you like now when you have that many ideas.
