It's really such a personal journey, making a record, but even more so writing the songs.
Among the songs I love best were those that I see as historically important, and helped change and develop my taste.
It would be impossible for me to give you a list of the top 10 songs that shake my life. Far more music went in to it than just ten.
You can write that it's because I still like Justin. Sexy back means sexiness. Did Strong Baby give off the same sexy feeling as my song now? I write it according to the feeling I get.
When I enter a club and hear my song being played, I feel like it's not really my song and when I see people dancing to my song, I feel like jumping up on stage and treating them to drinks.
A lot of people when they try to sing Skid Row songs, they're screaming and yelling too much. It's more singing than screaming.
I wanted to have more songs with religious backgrounds. The Christmas record has strong, traditional hymns, but it also has a song called 'Christmas in Heaven' about missing someone that you love that's passed on, and wondering what's going on up there on Christmas.
I love Florida Georgia Line. I love 'Round Here.' So if a fan wants to listen to that, and if a fan that wasn't listening to country music before is listening to 'Cruise' on Pandora, and after that a song by George Jones comes on, they may have never heard George Jones before. I think it's a good thing for the genre.
I've changed the way I look at things. When I put out a record or single I don't allow myself to set up expectations like, "This song must be a number one hit. Its got to sell X amount of records." I have fallen into that trap before.
But at this phase of my life, I want to write and not have to think about whether a song is going to be a hit. I want to explore the music that inspires me, and I don't want to ape myself.
I think the best riffs and the best songs come when you're jamming and having a good time.
Festivals are a time to play the songs people know and are looking forward to hearing.
I think often sadness is a great place to get songs from.
I think those walks to the studio were the most enjoyable times for me, because I could get lost in my head and think about what I wanted the album to sound like as I was writing. For the most part, it was great to have all that time alone writing the songs.
I should be glad of loneliness And hours that go on broken wings,A thirsty body, a tired heart And the unchanging ache of things,If I could make a single song As lovely and as full of light,As hushed and brief as a falling star On a winter night.
Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' is my go-to song to pump myself up if I'm having a tough time or if I get really nervous right before a speech.
I'm somebody who grew up listening to a lot of musical theater, so getting to finally write musical theater songs and songs that sound that way - the emphasis being on the storytelling, but the arrangements and the orchestrations can be really varied - I found that to be, actually, a really joyful discovery.
The film is a romance with songs and dances, aimed at a family audience.
If a man, in a lifetime of 50 years, can point to six songs that are immediately identifiable, he has achieved something. Irving Berlin can sing 60 that are immediately identifiable. Somebody once said you couldn't have a holiday without his permission.
Well, everybody's a drummer, I'll tell you that right now. Everybody knows what's right rhythmically for a song, so there were always suggestions flying my way.
I think everyone has a story to tell. Part of what I do is help artists find their voice, not only their vocal voice, but their writing voice. Every artist that I worked with who has those records that everyone talks about, they are also writers. I like to say I helped support whatever their writing was so people heard the song clearly.
Dancing to a great song with great friends and lots of laughter makes me come alive.
I knew I could make money from songwriting, so how much and when was not really the question.
Any time you have a song that is directly connected to a very specific musical trend of the moment, you have immediately cut it off at the knees, doesn't matter if it goes to number one in the world, if you're too attached to a production style.
There's a whole range of sources of inspiration for the drawings and stories. They come from dreams, hallucinations, pop songs, or other things I see in the world around me.
