It's funny: Your relationship changes with a song over time. After a year or so, you're a different person, so your songs, you don't connect with them like you did.
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.
Every song is something that I've been through or an emotion I've felt - like falling in love or heartbreak.
When I hear somebody like Hayes Carll write a song that's touching and poignant and sad and funny all at the same time, it motivates me to step my game up and try to figure out a way to get more different emotions into one line or one song.
I always feel a rise in my scalp or in the backs of my wrists when something is special, whether it be a song or a man.
The world is a song, but we do not know whether it is a good song because we have nothing to compare it with.
Producers like to record all the drums first, then they do the bass, then all the guitars, so you're constantly moving from one song to another.
Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors - it's how you combine them that sets you apart.
I just sit down and write the best song for the best moment, and however it comes out, it is what it is.
I don't know rap. I can't tell you a Tupac song. But you put on some go-go, and I'll know it word-for-word. That's why I feel like I got my own sound - or a D.C. sound.
If there's a song that stops meaning anything to me, then I'll quit playing it.
There was no such thing as production at Starday. We'd go in with the band, we'd go over the song, I'd look over and tell the steel player to take a break or kick it off, and I'd get the fiddle to play a turnaround in the middle.
I like to come up with lots of different sounds. So the final version of a song might have been 10 completely different songs before we finally got it right.
A lot of the time, when I'm choreographing, I'm not thinking about what movement look best next to the next movement - I'm actually thinking about what song and what sound sounds right next to the next thing. So kind of choreographing as if I'm always making a mix tape, so to speak.
I'm a pretty easygoing person, and it bleeds into the music. Even if I'm writing the most personal song, it's not going to come out totally serious; there's always a little tongue in the cheek.
I can go to a country song, go right into it and make it sound authentic. And I think that's because of my ear as an impressionist.
It's good to let go of control. That's probably something all artists and song writers will say at some point.
I wanted to have more songs with religious backgrounds. The Christmas record has strong, traditional hymns, but it also has a song called 'Christmas in Heaven' about missing someone that you love that's passed on, and wondering what's going on up there on Christmas.
For me, it's always been about a mix of hip-hop, acoustic singer/songwriters, and piano rock. I pull all those together. Each song may lean more heavily on one than the other, but they all have all three pieces.
It's funny how a song can start in your mind, and then when it goes through all the filters, it ends up in a totally different spot.
I'm always conscious of what I'm writing, conscious of what the actor may ask me. I have a defense for nearly every line in the song.
I can't start my day without hearing 'Waiting On the World to Change' by John Mayer. It's my alarm clock and my favorite song.
I'm one of those people if you ask, 'What's your favourite song?' I'm going to give you five. I don't have just one favourite.
I like to have songs with me that have substance. That's missing from a lot of today's music. You might hear a song with a catchy beat, but what's it about? It's not empowering or helping anyone.
I usually work on a film soundtrack for two years, turning in a song every few months, and that keeps my creative energy high, because I'm constantly rotating projects. The trick is to make sure I don't work too hard and get exhausted.
I overthink everything. I'm just like, 'Wait, why do they want to hear me?' I start doubting myself. Other times, I'll just get so emotional during a song. Sometimes I'll cry while I'm singing. It's so weird. I'm such a baby.
I have an office full of product from brands trying to be in videos and an inbox full of songs from artists, but at the end of the day if the artist doesn't support the brand or it doesn't make sense for the song, then it will never work. What we do is try to pair them up so that both sides are happy.
When I'm writing a song, it gives me more actual pleasure to hear someone else sing it than do it meself.
It's weird because I am accessible to people on Twitter, and I can choose to read good things or mean things, and people can reach out to me directly and tell me how much they hate me or love the song. It's a very strange new paradigm as an artist to find yourself among this kind of connectivity.
The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.
One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
I have a very eclectic iPod. So I've got my cardio people - so it's anything from Beyonce to some Jay-Z to Janelle Monae, her song 'Tightrope,' that's a good cardio song. And then I've got Sting. I've got Mary J. Blige. I've got The Beatles. I've got Michael Jackson. I try to pick the songs that I personally love.
Sometimes a song becomes rhetoric, but you have to really empathise. You also have to leave room for both sides of the argument: even if you're not telling the other side, you have to put that part in parentheses and make sure it's understood.
I don't do filler songs. I don't get them. They don't make any sense to me. Why would I literally waste my time on a song that doesn't hold up to the same standards as the other songs on the album? I won't play it live.
When I'm doing interviews, I'm doing interviews, and when I am writing, I'm writing. I sit there with a musician and I write. It's the same process since I started writing in my twenties. I like to come in and leave with a finished song.
I was really proud to be in that show. I will never forget. I got the script to 'Millie,' and I'm flipping through the script and saying, 'Boy, I have some lines... I have a big song.' I was 25 years old and had never been on Broadway before. I got to the end of the script, and I was really nervous and excited. I realized I had a lot to do.
