People thought me a bit strange at first; a blond haired, blue-eyed Norwegian who sang Mexican folk songs, but I used it to my advantage and got a job. And so the music became my ticket to education.
Ever since I've been young I've been fascinated by the human body. I've written songs about it, but you can become quite morbid if you think about it too much - paranoid and a hypochondriac.
I remembered their songs but I had never owned a Beatles album.
I'm not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.
I've written songs about things that nobody else has ever written about.
I got a guitar when I was six and, instead of learning other people's songs, started to try to write my own, even at that young age.
I always sang when I was little-bitty girl. I sang all the time. And then I'm from Knoxville, Tennessee, so I sang in a show at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. You know, they have all those variety shows where Dollywood is. And I sang there and yodeled and clogged, but I never wrote my own songs.
Some of the best songs I've written, I've written in 10 minutes.
Back in the early '90s, I started going to Nashville to do a lot of co-writes. One of the first people I met there was Keith Follese. Keith and his wife Adrienne are both songwriters, and we wrote some songs together.
I had a band called the Sound Of Love, and that was R&B songs about girls in my high school. I played in some other indie bands who were trying to make it big; those sucked. Then I started Makeout Videotape, and that was that.
I'm always flattered and honored when people cover my music or sing my songs, no matter where it is.
I still love to do the old songs. I know some people don't.
Even when I interviewed bands, it was about asking them about writing songs, so it was more for me than anybody else.
Songs like 'Outfit' and 'Decoration Day' and 'Dress Blues,' those were good songs, but the output wasn't as consistent in those days.
I've recorded in Portuguese, too. I didn't set out to just sing ballads or romantic songs.
If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.
It's really such a personal journey, making a record, but even more so writing the songs.
Growing up, I was in all the musicals and everything... I'd come home from school and bash out a few Whitney Houston songs.
I try not to write songs in which men glamorize their own need for approval from women. That's kinda a bogus way to go out. But I try to do this quietly. I'm not about to go around telling people how they should or shouldn't think. My feminism is for me.
I get things out of my system through my songs, but, because they can be about so many different things, it takes me a while to get through them emotionally.
I think the problem with people, as they start to mature, they say, 'Rap is a young man's game,' and they keep trying to make young songs. But you don't know the slang - it changes every day, and you're just visiting. So you're trying to be something you're not, and the audience doesn't buy into that.
I think there are things in my story that have helped my creativity. Your father being killed, for instance, is one of the best things that could happen to a kid if he's going to write poetry or songs.
I have never made money selling records. I have never really made money touring, either, or with merchandise, surprisingly. But I do make money by just having my songs in the background of television shows or in commercials or movie trailers. That's been really good.
When you have four guys in a room writing songs, it different. It's great - that's what makes a band a band. Audioslave was great.
I came to realize that if I was going to succeed in the music industry, I was going to have to learn how to perform my songs myself.
And I can say this, most of the people who have recorded my songs are songwriters themselves.
All those people who go to NASCAR and sing country & western songs and live in Tennessee, they totally ignore me, they don't come to my shows, I just don't exist for them and they don't exist for me.
There's a lot that goes into being Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney. They have great songs, their show is great, they're very fit. When you look at somebody who takes care of themselves, takes care of their business, that's what every CEO would do.
My place in Scotland is in the middle of nowhere, so you've just got a keyboard, guitar, a little drum machine and you know if you can work stuff out like that, if you can hammer out songs that sound good just with those three things and a voice, you're on your way.
The songs keep on writing themselves, and I really love them. It's as close as I get to a religion.
It is such a gift to be able to write songs in general, but when you can share it with somebody, it is just such a pleasure. It is such a happy moment when you finish a song, and you are just like, 'Wow - that was great.'
Like all teenagers in the early '60s, I put down my hockey stick when the Beatles got big and picked up a guitar. We all thought we'd be rock stars. Then I got into comedy, but I'd always find a way to use my guitar, such as writing songs and doing musical parodies.
The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too - eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko's, Fatburger, Subway - I was a sandwich artist - and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.
Spaniards are fun-loving people, and they love to dance to Punjabi songs for some reason. They didn't understand the language but enjoyed the beats.
People need songs to belt out in the shower. Even if everyone else doesn't need that, I need that.
The masses do not see the Sirens. They do not hear songs in the air. Blind, deaf, stooping, they pull at their oars in the hold of the earth. But the more select, the captains, harken to a Siren within them... and royally squander their lives with her.
