Usually I start with a beat, I start making a beat, and my producer side is making the beat. And on a good day, my rapper side will jump in and start the writing process - maybe come up with a hook or start a verse. Sometimes it just happens like that. A song like 'Lights Please' happens like that.
I try to read a lot and listen to a lot of good songwriters, and I try to actually work on the craft of writing a song rather than just leaving it up to inspiration.
When I play with my band around the U.S.A., the most requested song is 'Peace Frog.'
I wrote a song called 'Here on Earth,' and the hook is, 'There's no answers here on earth.' Basically, searching for the 'why' when someone passes away, and I feel really fortunate that my dad lived as long as he did. But no matter what happens or how it happens, it's certainly a stinker.
One day, I'm gonna make a song with John Mayer.
When you're in a band and there's five of you, you have to accommodate five people in every song.
It's pretty cool that artists like Flo Rida and Bingo Players can be inspired to interpret a song like 'Piano in the Dark' in completely new genres. As an artist and writer, it's the highest compliment we can be paid.
I always say, 'If it looks good on a T-shirt, it would probably be a pretty cool title or cool song.'
There's definitely a visual aspect and an emotional aspect to a song. And that harks back, for me, to theater.
I'm a professional songwriter - personal attitudes have nothing to do with writing a song.
I kind of always struggled writing in Malay, because Malay is such a beautiful language. And it gets really hard, you know, if you want to make it into a song. You have to make it sound beautiful, use the right words.
I just felt like I'd rather listen to even the worst metal song more than most current pop music.
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.
Keeping the pen out of your hand as much as possible is the best way to write a song, in my estimation. But the pen must come in to tighten it up.
The title song of David Bowie's 'Young Americans' is one of his handful of classics, a bizarre mixture of social comment, run-on lyric style, English pop and American soul.
I don't take my work ever for granted. I still work very hard on every song and try to outdo myself every time.
There is nothing like singing a song that 20,000 people know and are singing back to you.
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.
Over the years, more than one reviewer has described my fantasy series, 'A Song of Ice and Fire', as historical fiction about history that never happened, flavoured with a dash of sorcery and spiced with dragons. I take that as a compliment.
I've always gone to see all kinds of shows and stole what I could, as we all do. We see an artist and hear a song and think, 'I bet I could sing that song. I'll put that in my show.'
Sometimes when the song is right for that time period, it's just kinda bad to let it wait, and then when you do release it eight months down the road, it's not the same.
It's a great honor when somebody takes your song and does something different with it. That's what music is all about: to constantly change what somebody else has done.
I feed on other people's creativity, photographers, artists of every kind. Sometimes a feeling that you get listening to a song can be so powerful. I've wanted to write whole scripts around what I felt just listening to a piece of music. I think music is important, and surrounding your visual field with stimulating things.
You kind of have to become a song so to speak and we wanted to make sure that Tom did them with the best abilities he had and captured all that what the song is all about.
Writing a song is actually quite easy. Writing a good one is very, very difficult.
The Temper Trap's 'Sweet Disposition' is an invigorating song. It's my mental cue to let go of stress, disconnect from my career and connect to my body and my spirit.
This never happens, but I was writing with my friend Ryan Hurd and Eric Arjes, and we wrote this song called 'Last Turn Home.' The next day, my publisher emailed it to Tim McGraw's label. He listened to it, and I think within the week, he went into the studio and recorded it. And that never happens.
Having Dierks Bentley on a song is one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to experience. For one, him agreeing to do a song with me but two, getting to share that moment in the studio.
I've always been a fan of Five For Fighting's song 'Superman.' It's like an anthem, and I love it.
It's just a lot of fun to be able to see your ideas come into fruition. And to see people translate the things that come out of my mind vocally. And to be able to produce vocals and give people my point of view musically. And to be able to sit in the crowd and see people sing the song that I wrote, it's an amazing feeling.
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.
We really wanted to create an album that had no boundary or limit to it. There's nothing to say that we couldn't release a song that belongs on 'The Stage' 20 years into our career. We want it to be an album that constantly grows with what we want to do, and that's what we did.
I've had writing sessions with people, but I've never had one where you're just there, and you start making a song, and then it's too good to be true that something really cool will come out of this.
Well, there's two things that happen when people experience something, whether it's a song, a television show, a film, a book or any piece of art. It connects them to a certain part of their life and whatever was going on at that time in their life.
For us, we make a song, and if we like it, it goes on a record.
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.
