Most of the producers I work with are decent mixers. We'll wind up in these spots where I'll get the mix back and I'll put a few more pieces of production together and send it back to the mixer. It's so easy to change the entire perspective of the song by changing the mix.
If you listen too much to doubts you're totally lost.
Keep at something even when you don't feel inspired. Don't wait for inspiration! I write a lot of songs that are terrible, in the hopes that one song that has something special comes out of it. Just stay at something, and write every day if you're writing lyrics.
I think most people are many-sided; you have your evil side, your happy side, your spaced-out side. You try to stay on the positive side more - I mean, I try to - but I think we all have those different faces of ourselves.
A tiny detail can make you feel completely different. I feel different if I wear something that I'm slightly uncomfortable in.
I think that kind of balance comes with the process of growing together as a band, the Little Dragon. We love to write, we love to create, we love to play live, and I think we love and appreciate what we have together. How that evolves, and how we balance it, is something that's come with time. At the start we were all like, "Tour tour tour. We just want to play. That's all we want to do."
It's always a bit risky, when you put yourself out there with somebody in a collaboration, but I think we learn things every single time, and we come out of it with a new perspective on writing because everyone's process is different. Unfortunately we don't always get to spend time in the studio with those artists - oftentimes it's just sending files online. But both can be liberating and productive in their own way. Some of the best collaborations happen when you're all in a room together.
You want inspiration to come in a natural way and let it happen when it's going to happen. The last thing you want is this ghost looming over you saying "it has to be good" - remember that feeling of loving what you do, and don't let the business aspect murder that. It takes away the creativity for me.
One of my strict, strict rules is a no auto-tune policy.
You write music for yourself and if you just open that door and let people in, the audience is going to grow and it's going to become more accessible.
Now you know you're going to have to play music for the label, you know you're going to have to get an opinion from the manager. Now, I'm so much more conscious and it bothers me. I try to find my way back to writing without being too analytical or not thinking about whether this is good or is it bad.
To foster creativity, I think a little pressure can be good, but stress isn't good. Knowing that you have a defined window of time and you're going to dedicate your attention to it is a positive - but you can't think of it as needing a track that's going to change your life.
I don't write hits. If you just open that door, you're going to get a hit.
Gothenburg's definitely a music city as well, but I think just because of the weather - it's so cold and miserable - people stay in. Coming to the States and going into the store and people are like, "Hi, can I help you?" - I'm not used to people randomly talking to me that I don't know.
Swedes, compared to Americans, can seem a little cold and introverted.
It's weird with making music - you can have no vibe while you're working on something and recognize that the music was special afterwards. And it happens to me while I am working on my own music, as well! One minute you hate it, and then a few years you're obsessed with a little beat you did, and the opposite.
I really like our studio. It's definitely not in any way slick; it's very homemade, literally. Everyone has their own room to produce and write, and [there's a] big rehearsal space.
I find it a little stressful when you're in a really nice studio and you feel time ticking and the bill getting higher.
My lesson from that [songwriting process] was that I should go back to where I was and try to make that first pure even more strong.
What does success look like for you? Maybe your definition of success is too different from what the label defines as success. Perhaps your definition of success is simply being able to live off your art for the rest of your days. Don't get caught up in this crazy business. I'd say that's one of the most important things.
I feel like I'm still learning a lot with writing lyrics. In the beginning, like the first record, I wasn't so aware.
I was really into R&B and stuff like that, so I really wanted to sing like Faith Evans or Mariah Carey. But I definitely don't have the skills to sing like that.
I've worked with a lot of different producers, a lot of different writers on the album, so I mostly feel like I learned a lot about what I don't want to do the next time around.
I didn't really like jazz that much and was unhappy in that genre. It was what I was doing just to get by and pay rent.
I feel like there are a lot of artists that you could put together that you love, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to make amazing music. Giving an artist a great theme to write about doesn't mean the song's going to be good.
