I began to go to concerts when I was 12 years old. And I would stand there, the small imp that I was, and I would expect the world to be laid before me by these artists, and in some cases it was. So when I climbed onto the stage, I always imagined that I was singing to somebody who was similar to how I had been.
I always seem to be singing against the grain.
Everything we're singing about is true, and even when you take away all the glitz, it's still true in the darkest, ugliest and most hopeless places.
I do write my own music, and I also have been doing a lot of non-Beatle covers, just singing whatever I want to sing, the way I want to sing. But it can be hard to find the time to do that.
Another hard thing that Gord Downie makes easy: singing ironically. If you don't do it right, you come off like a snarky asshole or the whole thing just falls apart on its own. He has the ability to imbue something ironic with great seriousness, which is the only way to really make it work.
I'm thinking, I'm singing like Ozzy Osbourne, but I don't sound like him enough, ever.
We [ Paverment] were definitely unafraid of playing wrong notes and singing wrong things. We could be fearlessly bad!
What I rediscovered was the therapeutic nature of singing lessons. They're like doing yoga but for [the] inside of your body. You open up and use muscles that you don't think of as malleable.
If singing a couple of songs in a benefit will help keep the Festival alive and known, well, how can I say no to that?
I think it all comes back to the individual. My instrument's just a pile of metal and wood! If you listen to the way I speak I have a lot of rhythm, use a lot of accents. When I'm playing my instrument that concept comes through very clearly. In fact some people who've seen me play have noticed that I'm singing - but it's more that I'm actually speaking. So it's not really about the instrument. But for me, in my thinking, the music is all about the melody. When I compose, 99 percent of the time I start with the melody.
I started out singing in high school in the choir and in a garage band.
Throughout the whole Stroll album, I'm breaking barriers. Whether I'm doing acoustic hip-hop, singing my own hooks or singing my own verses... There's always going to be people who don't like it, cause they're stuck in their ways, or they just don't like you in general... but it's been good.
I'm sort of old-fashioned in the sense that I like to write something that I feel I could just perform alone, obviously, because I do that a lot in concert. So I try to make a song where there is as much that is as distinct as I can get it, just if I'm playing it or if I'm singing it. That makes me really do a lot of stuff in the guitar work when I sit and try to figure out how to indicate what sort of dynamic I'm aiming for. Where, rhythmically, I want to go. That's sort of what ties a lot of different records together, is that it's usually always based around me singing and playing a guitar.
I've taken singing lessons since I was young, just to work on technique.
When I write songs for myself it's really personal and I just can't have someone else singing it.
Back in the day, even if they were singing about the same things, each artist was unique. That's why I try to stay away from the big-name producers, so I can prove that it's not about the producer, it's about the artist. A lot of R&B artists have gotten away from being artists and are just chasing after the next hot producer and it all starts to sound the same.
I've never bought a Dylan record. A singing poet? It just bores me to tears. I've got to tell you, if I had 10 Dylans in the final of 'American Idol,' we would not be getting 30 million viewers a week. I don't believe the Bob Dylans of this world would make 'American Idol 'a better show.
The whole first two-thirds of the I Just Can't Stop Loving You song is just he and I. He's singing lead and I'm doing all the harmonies and we're both singing all the background. We're singing all the choruses until the choir comes in. We were the first two-thirds of the song.
Singing has nothing to do with poetry, except as twins separated at birth.
I'm singing the way that I love to sing, which is like old soul, like old Al Green. I grew up about an hour from Memphis. So all that music that I grew up with - the Stax music and early rhythm n' blues - I'm doing that. I'm actually getting out from behind my guitar and I'm singing.
Singing is definitely not my forte. I'll put that out there on the record.
Imagery is the most important to me when singing stories. I try to paint pictures with the words and decorate with little to no singing....let the song do the work.
I was singing before I could talk.
I will save the singing for my shower.
I consider myself as a singer first, but something that really helped me come into my own is that there's not a separation between me singing and me playing the guitar. The two fed off the other.
