Back in the old days, everyone was shocked if a band had a sponsor for their tour. Now, Bob Dylan can do a commercial for Victoria's Secret and people don't really blink; the Beatles' songs are in all sorts of commercials these days and it doesn't seem to offend anybody. The times are changing.
Don't give me songs, give me something to sing about!
I like to make sure I don't sing songs that are like self hating and feeling sorry for yourself 'cause that's not the kind of legacy I want to leave really. I want people to feel like strength, especially young women.
It's nice to know that you're worth something and music really does put that kind of light back into you. Well, it does for me anyway. I've been through some very interesting times in my life and there is certain songs that I go to and I'm like, ok, it's not that bad.
I started writing songs so late and I had so many day jobs - jobs just to pay the bills. So, when I started doing this, I said, "I'm never gonna do anything to corrupt this. Never try to "sell it." Never gonna do anything to make this a job." I can go five months without writing a song. Then something will happen and I'll write six songs in a week.
I usually can be more honest writing songs than actually talking to people.
I write my songs usually while I'm walking around. Or in a car. Or in a bus, a plane, something like that. I jot down lyrics wherever I am. Usually it's on a vomit bag on an airplane or something. I just look for a pen.
I want my songs to be heard by everyone.
I want my songs to be heard by everyone. I want [everyone] to treat people with compassion. I want them to realize that we are all so similar, but we focus so much on our differences.
The music as a whole is selfish, but the musicians aren't," "The song may go on forever but it's not about competition within the band; it's about playing as a band.
I've forgotten lines all the time. Sometimes I switch verses in a song. It's just hard not to when you're doing the same thing all the time.
'All Over Me' is a song that I really got fired up the first time I heard it: it just really moved and it really had a lot of energy.
I remember those days right after I graduated from college. All I had to do was wake up in the morning and think about writing songs. It's not like that anymore, needless to say.
I'm definitely not going to go and sing a song that condones certain things.
Music is very transporting. I'll hear a song for the first time and I rarely listen to the lyrics. I picture that song playing as a soundtrack to a movie, or even just in the background of someone's life. This all sounds weird, but I have an active imagination, and music opens the floodgates of that area of my brain.
It's hard to convince people when you haven't done anything that the things you're working on are worthy of spending their time and money on: like, "Oh man, I write really great songs, I promise!"
I've always thought, "I could probably write one of these country songs and send them to these places and make up this fake country band. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a completely parallel career and have nobody know about it?" I think I could get away with it. I'd be the guy from Oklahoma with country cred.
I've never been one like, "Oh, these are my songs" - that was done out of necessity, because there was no one to help. I have 90 percent of it written; that way, we can go on the road, be tight and have it ready to go for next year. I know I said I didn't have a grand design, but I think it's going to be like Marvin Gaye meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I was the boy who liked to sing his own songs at talent shows, and I was suddenly officially uncool.
As a new artist there's always outside influences trying to tell you how to make a song better for radio and how to do your hair.
There is a little bit of a head vs. heart kind of battle that happens sometimes with the song. There's the goose bump thing, where the melody or whatever it is just gets you and you don't know why. Sometimes, it's in a genre that you didn't think you liked and, all of a sudden, the song hits you and you just say, wow, I feel the hairs on the back of my neck. I love this song.
We were young, we were wild, we were restless Had to go, had to fly, had to get away Took a chance on that feelin' We were lovin' blind borderline wreckless We were livin' for the minute we were spinnin' in Baby we were alot of things, but we weren't crazy
With millions of people creating songs and uploading them to the web internationally, most artists know they need to dismantle the monetary barrier between themselves and the listener or they simply wont be heard.
My little brother and I took piano lessons at a young age and played music together later on in life just to play around at home until we decided to make a record. Eventually we started having more and more songs.
Every modulated sound is not a song, and every voice that executes a beautiful air does not sing. Singing should enchant. But to produce this effect there must be a quality of soul and voice which is by no means common even with great singers.
