Quotes About Music

I'd hate to be a songwriter starting a career today.

I had always thought of starting my own record company. I haven't regretted the decision - yet!

They told me that they are starting a classic label, and wanted me to be the first artist. So I signed, and am producing myself, and writing my own music, but I'm their first artist on their classic label. And I have creative control.

I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. It reminds me of when we were just starting out because we would open for other bands in the beginning.

But Contra la Puerta was done mostly in the opposite way, starting with sounds and melodies.

And then, I was thinking of doing a record just like starting with voice, because I did this one song that was just kind of a cappella, and I did it for this art piece I did where people could come and play music to go with a voice.

I'm starting to play all the melodies with kind of keyboard sound but playing it from the bass guitar.

I was starting to feel really suffocated, using the sequencer.

I feel like that I'm learning all the time. I'm learning from new artists, from established artists... every time I listen to '70s rock 'n' roll records, I'm learning. And I think that I'm just now starting to get a hold on what I do.

I was really inspired while I was pregnant and I wrote a whole album for my baby. I wanted to write a kids album that didn't annoy parents. I used The Beatles 'Rocky Raccoon' as sort of a starting place for my writing.

Being a recording artist, selling music, selling concerts out, having a reality show, starting film; it's great, it's beautiful.

Just the fact that that Europe album 'The Final Countdown' came out in 1986 and 'Rad' came out in 1986... I'm starting to think that maybe 1986 is my favorite year, of all time!

There are a few things that I will hopefully be credited for as a pioneer. One is my four-mallet playing. Another one is the starting what was first called jazz rock in 1967 when I started my first band, later became jazz fusion by the 1970s.

My music is just about story telling. I don't have much to say, and I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. I'm just singing through conviction about what I love and what I care about, starting with the very small.

At one point when I was very young, when I was first starting out, I thought, 'Well, one day I'll be able to put all the music away and become a real comedian.' But then I realized there are amazing musical comedians out there, that musical comedy is probably something I'll always want to pursue.

Anything is food for starting a song. A song can start with a lyric idea or a melody or just a sound that inspires.

I usually write a lot. I don't make an album and don't write for two years and then end up with a blank paper starting over.

I put out an album once every four or five years and it's kind of like starting over every time.

That internal ache is the starting point of country music. If it's a happy song and I can still feel sad in it? That's my favorite.

My starting point is always to read a script and have a conversation with the director about what their vision is, and then, after that, I love to do research.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

'Even Flow' is the best to play live because of the long solos. It starts out slow and builds, and, depending on what the audience does, I can reflect that in the solo.

I certainly love a boogie and once the music starts I'm usually one of the first out there on the dance floor.

Something happens when the music starts, and all that tiredness just goes away. When it's going like that, I'll take on any 20-year-old hot-shot drummer who wants to try me.