I like to interpret 'Call me a River', as if I'm saying, 'Now you're telling me you love me after all that, and I'm telling you to shove off.' That's my interpretation. But I would never 'say' that because somebody else might interpret the song in another way.
I've grown fonder for Hillary Clinton since she ran for the presidency. I think that it's emblematic of the Rolling Stones song, you can't always get what you want, i.e., the grail. Sometimes you get what you need. And whatever she's gotten over the last couple of years, being humbled or be it being humbled and see the proletariat come to bat for her, getting outside of the bubble, getting out of this man's shadow, not quite getting the job she wants but a great wonk job.
There's in my mind a... turbulent moon-ridden girl or old woman, or both, dressed in opals and rags, feathers and torn taffeta, who knows strange songs but she is not kind.
The comedians all finished their acts with a song. They would get a certain amount of money from the song publishers and would use that money to pay the writers. None of them paid very much for their comedy material, but it all added up.
For us as writers, it's really important to have songs we believe in - even before sometimes we shoot a scene. If we have a song that's so perfectly designed for a scene on 'Rescue Me,' we'll play it on loud speakers during the shooting. It helps the cameraman and it helps the director, and it helps the actors know what the feel is.
I'm sure as I progress the sound may get cleaner but right now, I'm still interested in having it rough but never overwhelmingly so. I consider myself an amateur pop songwriter and I want that to come through, too.
One of my favorite songs from the album is a song called 'For Better or Worse,' and it's basically about unconditional love, which is, I'd say, an ongoing theme in my personal life.
The songs come from a vulnerable place, but expressing that part of yourself can also make you feel fearless.
Besides my fast and slooow songs, I further divide my work into three main song types: the ballad or story song, the variation on a theme (saying the same thing over and over and over again) song, and the weird song. It's important to have weird songs, but I find that a little weirdness goes a long way.
I love Doctor Who and I remember the first one, which was wonderful in its low-tech quality. I also loved the theme song, which sounded like The Cure to me. Which character would I like to play in Doctor Who? Who's the bad guy? The Dalek? OK, I'll play him.
Chestnut brown canary, ruby throated sparrow, sing a song, don't be long, thrill me to the marrow.
I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.
For several centuries what has passed for song in literary circles was any text that looked like the lyrics for a commonplace melodic setting.
We got a new song called 'Ashes in Your Mouth,' and it is NOT about a joint falling apart.
You know, Nirvana used to start rehearsals with the three of us just jamming. For, like, a half an hour, just noise and freeform crap - and usually it was crap. But sometimes things would come from it, and some songs on Nevermind came from that, and 'Heart Shaped Box' and stuff on 'In Utero' just happened that way.
When I was writing songs, I always thought I'd make more of a career out of the drawings, the comics even more than the music.
I love TV. I know all the theme songs from the shows I watch. I'm not one of those who'd rather be a movie star. I prefer TV because of the rushed way of working-on a movie set, you sit around and wait and wait to do a scene because they're adjusting the lights.
I can't be bothered anymore about giving songs titles.
I've been in situations like in Tokyo where people sang my song word for word and then when the music stopped, they couldn't speak to me. I've seen the music break the language barrier.
Don't be afraid to write bad songs and then start over and re-evaluate. Songs are like plants, in that you grow them. Some grow really fast, and others need pruning and care...And, finally, a song needs to move you. If it doesn't move you, it will never move anybody else.
I go through a thousand songs to find ten for a new record.
When you write a song, the goal is not to convey the details of your life. You should write a memoir or something if that's what you're going to do.
I understand why people get desensitized and roll their eyes when they hear a protest song, or even a politician making some flowery speech. It doesn't really change anything.
I was never encouraged to do it and I played the accordion, which I hated. I wish I had taken piano because I definitely would have written more songs of my own, but I didn't.
I think I'm going to put together a compilation under Disney's name of my songs that I've done for them - because I've done six or seven by now! The latest was for the Princess Diaries 2 soundtrack. So that's the next thing that's coming out.
