And we just went with Julie because that name hadn't been used in any other popular songs at the time.
It's great when you play to an audience that knows the words to all your songs, and sings them back to you.
On the other hand when you are someone who records their own songs you are basically stuck writing for one voice and for one style that can stifle you a bit. It's a real trade off.
I've always had problems with my brain, so a lot of the songs are about issues I have with paranoia or freak-outs. 'When My Head Explodes' is about being on stage, having people look at you and expecting you to perform, then literally your head explodes.
I write a tiny fraction of what I used to write. My only job used to be to just write songs, and that was a really nice job to have, but only a tiny amount of people heard those songs, and I didn't make a living from it, and eventually I begged my parents to let me move back into my room.
I think a lot of my songs are very silly and very stupid, written to entertain people, but in the end, I always come to that last line, and I feel that I have to wrap this up with a bit of dignity and a little tear in the eye; otherwise, the joke would be on the characters in the song.
It seems to me like the Internet allows you to break that structure a little bit. You know, here's your CD that's going into stores, here's your EP that you offer online, here's a subscription for songs you recorded on the road, here's your live stuff streaming.
I found it was really impossible for me to write songs when I couldn't sing.
When the student has her voice under complete control, it is safe to take up the lyric repertoire of Mendelssohn, Old English Songs, etc. How simple and charming they are!
No, we've been performing our old songs a little differently each performance.
My older sister encouraged me from early on and bought me one of the first guitars I had. She listened to all of the crappy songs that I wrote when I was 8 years old and encouraged me to keep doing it.
If I did a show and didn't do Hootie songs, I would be ripping people off.
And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs.
There is a sense of motion and a concise, immediate image in haikus and Anishinaabe dream songs.
If you write songs you have an idea how they're going to sound.
I mean, there are so many of his songs that I like that I could easily do that one day.
When you're DJing, there are songs I love to play, but I know people are going to walk off. It doesn't matter what I like. You have to be able to play the popular song and slip in one of yours, in such a way that they don't notice it. You've got them in such a roll that you get them back into what they think they like.
It's taken a long time but eventually when I had the songs in place and demos right and I found myself a manager, that's when everything started happening quickly but I think that's always the way it is.
Well, over the years, I've developed a stable of songs of which I'm known for and never get tired of singing.
I've done lots of songs for film soundtracks and things like that - stuff I'm not ashamed of, but that doesn't represent my legacy with the Pretenders.
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.
Personally, I just want to hear good songs.
I have some tracks and songs written for future collaboration, and I'm happy to work with artists who have the right voice and taste.
You don't want to be a one-trick pony. On a lot of Smiths songs, I used a pick or a plectrum, and for some of the slow songs, I used my thumbs and my fingers. That's why I love the bass - it's adaptable, and you can express yourself so well with it.
I quite like childlike songs, which sometimes cross over.
I tend to like simple music. And clever, succinct lyrics. Songs that don't try to be more than they need to to be effective, to stir up something emotionally within you.
That's what I find with any good song, you just have to let it happen. Out of about twenty songs you might write, one of any significance. It might be thirty or forty, but I just keep churning them out and churning them out in hope that one of them will stick.
Every single band in the world has these gigantic songs that people are obsessed with.
I'm thankful for my songs being at the top of the charts but I am human - I think people still have to remember that.
I've been through almost every type of obsession as far as music genres go, so I usually say I just like a good song, but the songs that are the most universal that a person on the other side of the world knows and can relate to is a very powerful entity.
I love the whole aspect of music, especially the singing; I never get tired of finding new songs to sing and sing them in a way that's interesting for the public.
There is a lot of melody and things that sound familiar in hundreds of songs.
We wanted to write the kind of songs that can really cross any language barriers, any borders, and resonate with fans around the world.
When the simple word processors came in, writing became crisper, less dense - just because of the way we could instantly edit on the screen. Now the ability to mash up words and pictures and links and songs and tweets is what matters. I can't imagine what writing will be like in 2154.
When you look into the eyes of your people out there that came to see you, that's when it's like, 'Yep, this is what it's all about.' This is why we don't sleep, and this is why we write songs and try to be the best. This moment right here onstage.
It's really a sad story, and I liked that. The songs on this album talk about relationships in every aspect.
