I have those songs as well. It depends on what I'm going through in my life but I'm a huge fan of Bjork. Sometimes I get so emotional because she's so amazing.
With my songs I tried to prove that there is love.
So many songs are just a wink to the audience, but people take them seriously. 'My Humps?' C'mon!
For me, I go in and play a few Christian songs for an audience, and now I have people come up and not tell me I'm great, but tell me that my music is helping save their lives, helping them in the Lord, and helping them end their vices.
I felt impelled to write. It felt demonic, and I wanted to improve, the way some people habitually pick up a guitar and get better at playing it and making up songs.
I love it when people take contemporary songs and find a narrative or a theatrical way of telling it.
It's just that a lot of songs that are popular right now, they don't have any meaning.
It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.
I have been blessed with some incredible compositions to record and perform and all of my songs have had the ability to grow as I and those who have supported this career of mine for these 50 years have.
It's so amazing to hear a crowd of people singing one of your songs. It's the best feeling.
It's amazing what some people read into songs.
It's like these songs are your babies and you don't want anybody to think your babies are ugly! You never really know until you throw it out there if it's gonna take. And that is a really scary and vulnerable place to be, so having those songs be embraced is the best feeling in the world. That's been our dream our whole lives.
I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and realising who I am. It's a natural process.
Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.
I think there are a lot of artists that are very traditional. I think someone can be a fan of someone like Josh Turner and then turn around and be a big fan of someone like Taylor Swift because, at the end of the day, it's all about those songs. I feel like country music has the best songwriting and the best songs of any genre.
I always knew I was going to do something with music, but with my whole family being in the business, acting was something that was just mine. But when I was 20 or 21, I started writing songs and felt the itch to make a record.
I feel a lot more comfortable being me these days. I'm constantly told that my work is good. A lot of fans and a lot of other artists say my songs and albums mean a lot to them. Isn't that what's important?
Actually, if I could deliberately sit down and write a pop hit, all my songs would be pop hits! Let's put it this way. I play what I like to hear. And sometimes I like to hear something poppy, and sometimes I don't.
I love songs. Songs are my favorite things.
There's a lot of songs and songwriters out there - you have to make something stand out to pitch songs. Sometimes you have to be bold and just try something different. And just stick with it - don't give up if nothing happens.
I sing songs that I have lived or I write them because I have lived them. I think the believability factor is key.
Now, the DJ becomes a star in itself because of the way he programs the songs with lows and then highs and then slowing it down. The big DJs, like Tiesto and Deadmau5 and all those guys, they are very, very creative.
As a singer-songwriter, a solo artist with a guitar, I can only write so many weepie little bedroom songs.
If people respond to the songs, whether they love you or hate you, then you've really done your job. You've evoked something.
Smokey Robinson writes the heartfelt songs, whereas it was my job to write the songs about weakness and failure in love.
In America, at the beginning of talkies, they pulled Fred Astaire from the theaters and put him on the screen and had all of these great composers write songs for him. They call it the Great American Songbook; I call it the Fred Astaire Songbook because they were written for him.
I've always littered my songs with jokes. You might need to dig a little deeper to find the humor, but I would totally object to being some kind of distraught personality. I've never tried to attach myself to that.
I started writing songs by myself. That always came from whatever I was feeling and being honest about that because I never had any intention of anyone ever hearing them.
I get sick when I think about someone going to iTunes and downloading two songs off our album. It's not meant to be listened to that way.
I think a lot of people think that my parents' deaths is why I write such sad songs, but that's not true. Those songs may just be the woman I am.
Maybe some people that only listen to electronic music will pick up my record and get turned on to some of the story songs, some of the more country-type stuff.
My goals are to tell meaningful stories through songs and touch people's lives... and hopefully make a living doing it.
We would make songs, and the producers said we should play it for my dad. I was kind of scared, I didn't know what to think cuz we were just joking around.
I can't wait to front my band with these new songs and play for fans, but I've decided to keep my day job too.
I work so I don't need to make rent through my songs, and I think if more people engaged with music without needing it to provide for their welfare, you're not beholden to anyone.
I've got a lot of songs about having fun and partying, but it's a lot of work.
