When I started The Shins, it really was just me, alone, but it was still The Shins. I was totally recording stuff and writing songs as The Shins and all of that. So the beginning inception of the whole thing was some sort of a lie, I guess.
It's easy to get people to sing along to cover songs, but when it's your song, it's the coolest.
When you do have songs where you're going to say something, some kind of statement about cultural or social stuff, that in general people love it. People love to be challenged in that way.
A lot of people have come with 100 songs and never had the impact that I have with one, and I'm well aware of that.
The main issue was deciding what to play: Should it be old Ramones material or new material? I had about three albums worth of new material, but I knew that people would rather hear the Ramones songs.
It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.
Songs are a way to express what I have felt. A way to understand what happened to me or to other people.
I always try to give my songs as gifts.
There are so many songs that I could not sing the way I wanted to. When such songs come on television or radio, I shut them off or leave the room.
I don't know too many people because I stay at my house, I write songs, I go to the store.
I've written quite a variety of songs, everything from kids songs to political satire, and my dad covered a fairly large range, also.
I only record songs that I really like and believe in and can sing with conviction.
Interestingly, songs used to be short, then they became longer, and now they're getting shorter.
I have been writing songs since I was 9 years old, so writing has and always will be my first love and passion.
There's an element of tongue-in-cheek in every one of our songs. Walking off into the sunset, holding hands, and being married forever was not exactly a brand new idea.
I'm influenced a lot by Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, even Paul Weller - Billie Holiday as well: People who wrote and sang songs that were reflective of their times. I quite like that. I quite admire that.
The one thing I've learned in the last ten years is that successful artists don't get paid to write and sing songs, they get paid for the psychological roller coaster they're going to have to ride. That's the hard work.
I cannot tell you how lucky I am: the songs that I sing, I like!
So many famous iconic American songs are protest songs, and I think that the vast majority of artists will only continue to add to that body of work.
The way I choose to show my feelings is through my songs.
I got several litmus tests for songs, but usually the people at the publishing company... they're straight-shooters.
There are so many songs in my heart and in my brain. I wake up at 2 in the morning, and I have to get up and sing them. There are so many of them, it's ridiculous.
I moved to Nashville to be a songwriter. I found out that was a job, that someone would pay you to sit in a room with a guitar and make up songs! It is the greatest job in the world. I wrote three or four songs a day. That's what I lived for.
I've covered Avril Lavigne. I like good pop songs, and I don't think there should be any kind of preconceptions about where good pop songs come from.
United Artists wanted to do records with me. I had no idea, what a rare thing that was... to make an album. And they put a guy with me working on songs, and I got busy with films. I just kind of let it slide. Isn't that amazing?
If it can affect me, if it has meaning to me, if I feel I can do it well, I will do it and record it and thats why I recorded these songs.
A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.
I have four shelves covered with journals that I've written. Dad and I are writing songs together. I've probably written 100 songs.
I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs.
I do sing in the car. I actually sing Britney Spears songs in the car - me and a close friend of mine. She lives in West Palm and I live in Miami, and when we're going back and forth to see each other, we sing: 'Oh, Baby Baby.' We sing all these 1990s songs. We're like two 14-year-old kids just having a good time.
My contribution is the romance and the warmth. The love songs.
There are so many songs I've recorded, only to hear other people singing them. It happens all the time.
When I'm old I shall give up writing the big stuff and shall wander round the park thinking of songs.
All I ever wanted to do was write songs and get on a bus and go play them for people.
I think I bring the songs that aren't about me or related to me to life. It's like the song 'How Do I Let A Good Man Down?' Let me tell you, I didn't write that song - because if I have a good man, I ain't going to let him down.
I'd like to teach kids how to write songs. This will be my first year so I'm just as green as some of the rest of the folks. It's like a music camp and I get to hang out with some of the past contestants.
