I just write songs whenever I feel like it, whenever they come to me.
I'm convinced there are a lot of couples who have got together while listening to my music. My songs are not exactly unsexy.
Bands don't play the whole LP. They play a selection of the songs that they like.
All of the best songs happen on a whim.
I love to sing, and I've recorded a few covers and originals with friends, but I haven't written any songs.
All songs, all pieces of art, reflect the world that they were made in and the values of those artists and the hopes and aspirations of the people who listen to that music and who made that music.
I don't write about anything I don't want to write about. I like to think I could write about anything pretty much that I chose to. I have been asked to write songs about specific things, and I've always been able to come up with the goods.
As Juan Gabriel, music is my religion, and mariachi is my devotion. And my songs are my prayers.
I don't think people are fans of me because I wrote hit songs. I think they're fans because I'm a lunatic or a weirdo. The hit songs came out of my idiosyncratic personality, not the other way around.
My songs have always been frustrating themes, relationships that I've had. And now that I'm in love, I expect it to be really happy, or at least there won't be half as much anger as there was.
Indian cinema is entertaining, and what I love most about it is the songs and dances in the films.
Cover versions, that's my forte, that's all I ever used to do. When you play your own songs, it's quite scary, 'cause I'm quite honest and open, they can be very revealing. But covers, I don't have to think about, just get me up there!
I love grooves and dance music, but I like the feeling behind songs too.
I have a terrible memory in general, but one thing I've always been able to remember is my songs.
As a songwriter, you might write every day and throughout the course of a year you might get four songs that are really special.
The Katy Perry stuff, those are great songs.
The saddest songs are written when a person is happy.
Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs.
In the early days, I had very little idea about arrangements, and I wrote songs a little flat, as it were, just on an acoustic guitar. They didn't really have quite enough nuance.
I would imagine that most of my writing is done spontaneously. I had no intention of writing, and then I'll just walk through the house, and I'll hear this melody, and I'll turn on the tape players and go back to it later on. Some days I'll get 3-5 songs a day.
My favorite songs are the ones that really come from the heart.
No matter how I do this, my best songs have profanity in them.
We would turn everything into songs in those days.
There's always room for your hard-core country songs, and that will always shine through, and I'll always have those on my albums. And then I'll have fun stuff that gets people up and dancing that some people may want to say, 'Well that sounds real pop-y!' but I don't really think it does, I just think it's what's going on.
A lot of my solo albums were produced by different people who had their idea of what songs I should do, and they had me doing a lot of ballads.
I'm singing background on one of Blondie's songs on her new album.
I would enjoy venturing into music, as I do write songs and compose music! And, of course, dance, rhythm and performance are in my blood, so eventually I see myself doing something in that area, surely!
I was on the dole once. I loved it. It was only for a couple of years, when I was 20 or 21 and playing in a band. Back then, this was something young folk did - you got your rent paid, a little bit of money to live on, and you loafed around, wrote songs, rehearsed and dreamed of playing Wembley Stadium.
I love story songs because I've always loved books.
I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.
I've never done songs with people just for the sake of the great combination. I've always done songs with friends.
No matter what I do, my songs come out in a certain style, and if that sounds like Dead Kennedys, then there's probably a reason for it. Don't forget, I wrote most of those songs, music and lyrics.
I remember hanging out at Starbucks. There were these older guys who would sit around and play Crosby, Stills & Nash songs. I was just so in love with music. I would just go hang out with them, and I would try to sing and harmonize with them. I didn't even know the songs.
I've done two albums for Concord Records; one was with Al Jarreau and it did very well for us. The second album was called 'Songs And Stories,' and it had good songs and good performances, but I promised them I would do an album that was more jazz-oriented.
I listen to a lot of Tupac and Biggie Smalls. Old school songs. Rick Ross. I listen to a guy ASAP Rocky. I like different kinds of music. I always have. It motivates me before games... A Tupac playlist or a Meek Mill playlist. It varies.
Everybody has their favorite sad songs. That's part of what I love so much about country music. Country music is never afraid to go with a sad song.
