I grew up in the era of Britney Spears, where artists had songs written for them, and you got up and sang them. That's how I always thought it was.
I was already in my early twenties, but I looked much younger because I was fresh-faced and, well, short. So I did songs such as 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah' and jokes such as describing current events as 'ancient history.' Boy, did the audience roar at that one.
At first, I did have that thought, like, 'Oh crap, what are we going to do after?' Then I realized 'Girl in a Country Song' was an honest, truthful song, and we were telling our truth, and that's all we have to do - write songs that are true and tell our stories.
When I grew up, there were no songs about gay people.
I work 'cause I have to pay the bills. But I also work 'cause I love it. I don't know what I'd do with me if I didn't have this work. It's what I've done all my life. It's my motivation. It's my satisfaction. It's my joy to stand in front of an audience to sing, to come back home and write songs. Man, it's amazing for me.
To see fans singing your songs back to you is an indescribable thing.
For your songs to connect with people, they've got to mean something to you.
I don't believe in, and I am a devout non-believer, in playing new songs live if the subjected and pathetic crowd has not heard them before because I consider it like mass psychosis and genocidal.
'Things that Never Cross a Man's Mind' is probably one of my favorite upbeat tempo songs because it is just a sassy song, and it's a fun song.
From dancing around to Michael Jackson and Madonna as a kid to having my mind blown by the first sounds of punk and indie rock, to getting to play my own songs and have people listen, music is what got me through.
In the songs I can still be really really direct but in interviews when I'm explaining my songs I shouldn't be so direct about who they're about.
I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.
My imam at the Central Mosque said there was no problem with making music. In fact, he encouraged me - he said if the songs are moral, not offensive, then go ahead.
I'm just going to do things that I like to do, sing songs that I like to sing.
Everyone's got crazy fans! But honestly, the crazy fans are where it's at, because they know all the lyrics to the songs that you're singing, and they're dancing and having a great time. You can really enjoy performing for them, even more than you can enjoy performing for someone that's not crazy.
There's not one day that goes by that I'm not listening to one of my songs or in rehearsal for one of my songs or dancing to one of my songs.
In order for me to write, I have to experience life. I write the songs based on real life, and I perform them from a very real place.
My songs are self-explanatory... somebody pointed out to me that... my songs pretty much speak for themselves.
In '98, I locked myself in my house, went out of my mind and wrote 25 songs. I rarely bathed during that period of writing, I sent out for food, I didn't really venture out of my house in three or four months. It was a hell of an experience.
I have done a bit of recording and the songs are available on iTunes, and I've got some nice comments. It's something I enjoy doing, but I'm not looking for a singing career any time soon. As long as one person gets enjoyment out of it, I'm happy to make it available.
I try to create songs that are really massive and intense, but at the same time remaining honest and raw.
Jokes rot. They're not like songs. I always envy singers - Sting is always going to sing 'Roxanne'. But people want to hear new jokes. I've written jokes as good as 'Roxanne', I believe. But I can't tell them again.
I write songs for people who drive in cars. I really do.
If you look at an old piece of sheet music, there's all kinds of text on it, there are ads, there are proclamations of the greatest songs' success, there's artwork. So there is a tactile, physical experience of learning the song and the way it's notated.
A lot of my friends who I wrote or produced songs for came back and helped me make 'Pages.' It's better than I ever could have imagined.
Instrumental music can be about anything. It's about a mood, and I usually title my instrumental songs long after they're written. Sometimes I figure out the titles when I'm doing the CD package, and that's very common for a lot of people who write instrumental music.
I don't think music affects what words I choose to type in what order, within what punctuation, at this point, because I'm rereading and editing each sentence, at this point, in my published books, probably 100-150 times each, on average, and listening to probably 20-60 different songs in that time.
I got into dub a long time ago. I was into dub before I even had any interest in reggae or Jamaican songs, Bob Marley, or any of those established artists. I just thought it was such an unusual sound.
I've probably cried with a lot of songs - in teenage crushes, adult crushes.
I just like playing songs with happy vibes and good feelings.
I was in New York in 2014. It was still cold outside. I was sitting there working on 'Exchange' and 'Right My Wrongs' at the time, and a fan had commented on one of my songs called 'Let Em' Know' that was already on my SoundCloud and said, 'trapsoul movement.'
Something that really helps when it comes to writing songs is you start to notice how children learn and how we all had to learn in the first place, starting from the ground up. It gives you a new perspective.
The fact that people are actually shaving their eyebrows is very flattering. But it's crazy that people are singing songs I wrote in my bedroom.
People don't really listen to albums anymore. They just find good songs.
The first music I was ever exposed to was Irish folk music, like the Clancy Brothers. My father plays that and Christmas songs.
I don't know who was the one that came up with the notion that you have to play the same songs every concert.
