Quotes About Songwriting

it was a phrase, it had power, I had this riff. To me, that's just sort of the alchemy of writing songs.

That's where I started to discover that I had an ego," says Barlow. "I just became so involved with writing my own songs and really getting into my own sound of things. Just getting totally self-involved. It was pretty great.

That's where I started to discover that I had an ego," says Barlow. "I just became so involved with writing my own songs and really getting into my own sound of things. Just getting totally self-involved. It was pretty great. So when I played for Dinosaur, I was able to play for Dinosaur—do my thing and be quiet.

I always been writing songs since I was, like, six. I was listening to Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Frankie Laine and people like that. I was just in the backyard writing songs.

I don't think writing or co-writing my songs makes me a better singer, but I haven't really got an excuse not to do it as I've got too many opinions!

I'm a singer-songwriter. So I play guitar, and I sing. Along the lines of, I guess you could call it, alternative rock.

Even when I was coming up in the singer-songwriter ranks during the early '70s, I thought that people who were stylists and stuff shoulda still been up on the pedestal. I mean, it's fine to recognize people who write songs, but it kinda got out of hand, you know?

I was always a wannabe 'singer-songwriter' but nothing was happening. I was trying for albums. I was too afraid to quit my job for nothing. But my friends kept on encouraging me. I kept on writing songs. My first hit was probably my 150th song.

I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley.

I've grown from being around other singers. I've learned not to be afraid. A part of that is from writing my own songs and discovering how to tell my own story properly.

My first break was in my home country with some pop songs that became hits, writing for French singers Christophe & Francoise Hardy, which became hits.

When I am seriously composing, sometimes a phrase will come into my head, a catch phrase. When I was writing pop songs for a few years, as a career, separate from my folksinging career, I used to write songs for pop singers.

'Nothin' on You' by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I'd been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.

Sometimes I write notes that I have difficulty singing.

You have to ration your creativity over all your songs. You write a really cool pop song then you have to write a heavy song to balance out, then you need to think about singles.

I'd love to write a song that someone else sings that can actually sing really well.

I don't sit there writing songs, thinking, 'This would be good for Rihanna.' I don't want to be pitching out like that.

I had been writing songs for other people for a while, and I made a demo and I put it on my Myspace, which Perez Hilton found and blogged about on his site.

I did this thing with Trisha Yearwood, a song called 'The Price.' I had been sitting on it for a while, because I figured, you know, this really needs a good singer.

To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.

I just like to entertain myself by sitting down and writing songs.

The Fat Mattress consisted of people I'd played with before joining the 'Experience and it was put together as a song writing situation.

I've had lots of friends who've gone through 'Battlefield' situations in their relationships, so when I was singing the song I put myself in their position and tried to imagine what they were going through. I got so, so into it and I think you can tell.

I always prefer to write songs about emotional situations and heartbreak because I like getting into the character.