Quotes About Songwriting

Songwriting was definitely first. I started singing, and then I was rapping; then I went back to singing. As I was growing up, I just taught myself piano and guitar.

But if you want to be a songwriter-based musician, whether you play punk or rock or country or jazz, whatever, you have to work on your songwriting and you have to work on being able to play in front of people, I think. That performance is how you create the groundwork for a lasting career.

As far as songwriting, I'm not sure if they wrote all of their own stuff, but I love the Dixie Chicks.

'Gatekeeper' was sort of my first attempt to put a little bit of a frame and boundaries around songwriting, and try to figure out a way to approach it that had a sort of end result in mind. I haven't written many like that.

I just love The Cure. I think that their songwriting is so next level, and I really like the juxtaposition between this bad boy attitude and a softer, more emotional idea.

I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively - and there were a lot of choices - writing songs was king.

The foundation for me is the songwriting and the craft. All I want is for people to hear the music. Just put me in front of an audience.

We influence singing but never really songwriting.

The new generation of musicians is writing music on computers, and this is very sad because the quality of songwriting has crashed and dived. There are some songs out that are made by only one guy who works a computer and doesn't play any instruments.

I ended up writing songs and growing up in public with my songwriting. And it's a good thing for me back then: in the early '70s, there was a thing called artist development, where an artist could find his feet, find himself, find his voice. I think I made five or six albums before I sold five or six albums.

My songwriting has brought so much to me as an artist and my ability that I have as an artist has brought so much to my songwriting that they live off each other. Without one, the other one dies.

When I recorded my solo album, 'Keep It Hid,' in 2008, I'd gotten more interested in songwriting, inspired by reading Charles Bukowski and connecting with unfancy, interesting language.

Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest.

No I.D. is like an alchemist and he'll only give you so much at one time. It's for the best at the end of the day, cause through the process of working with No I.D. I was able to soak up his perspective for songwriting and production and keeping music alive.

I never judge my own songwriting. It's just my heart. What's there to judge about your own heart?

There's been many times when a producer will say, 'I don't think you want to say that.' We were told we shouldn't be so brutally honest about songwriting or radio or the industry.

We have a camp up in the Adirondacks with no electricity, and I find that it's one of the most fertile places for me as far as songwriting because there isn't much to do.

In songwriting, I needed language. And I always believed in singing about what I do.

The good thing about songwriting is you don't have to delineate between what's true and what's fiction; records aren't put on the shelf that way. Books are, movies are, but records aren't.

Songwriting is such a mysterious thing. Its a magical channel thats a gift to you and you cant really conjure it up when you want it to. It could pop up when youre driving or out having dinner.

But this is pretty new for me, both songwriting and singing.

I wanted to be part of pop culture, so I started songwriting, and I got signed to my first record deal.

Songwriting is something that's very daunting until you have your first successful song, I think.

'Mr. Misunderstood' - that whole album is incredible and just has amazing songwriting.