Quotes About Composition

Right now we're in the process of writing new material for a new record.

Music is really, really mathematical.

When you play all that as a body of work there are four great songs, four mediocre songs and four bad songs. I didn't know it at the time; I was just doing my best.

I've always really liked the rhythm element of songs.

When I write a song, it's all about the riff - the riff first, then the words come later.

I've got so much material; like, it feels as if every day I'm coming up with so many riffs.

When you get the right people together, writing music becomes very effortless.

I want to know exactly how the first few measures are going to go, and the rough shape of a movement or the whole piece and its essential character.

'Routine' was written on piano, and you can hear that. But then you listen to 'Happy Returns,' and you can tell it's definitely been written on guitar, with that singer-songwriter-y strumming quality.

I'm not a minimalist, not at all. I feel much better, safer even, having a large piece.

If it's a real bad score, then it can ruin a movie for me, or, at least, it will draw a lot of my attention to the score.

I always really wanted to do film scoring, largely because I hate writing lyrics. I just won't do it. I need help with the words.

I've never envied the person who had to put my books together in one script.

I've always had money because of my early success with Cream, so I tell young musicians to aim to write their own material, because owning the composition rights makes a very big difference.

Sometimes I get a lyric, and the lyric, you know, comes off the page, and goes into my brain and comes out with a melody. Other times, I may create a melody first.

When I write music, these colors pop out of me. It's hard to describe, but basically when I write music, I paint, and I add colors, and I add notes.

When I was asked to compose a score for... 'Palo Alto,' I first thought to myself, 'What is the house that these characters would want to live in?' I wanted to paint a picture and color scheme that I could work around. I gently apply different daubs to see what fits to match the color I have in mind with these characters.

A painting that is well composed is half finished.

Most of the power of painting comes through the manipulation of space... but I don't understand that.

I'm trying to make paintings like giant musical chords, with a polyphony of colours that is nuts but works.

Gray goes with gold. Gray goes with all colors. I've done gray-and-red paintings, and gray and orange go so well together. It takes a long time to make gray because gray has a little bit of color in it.

At the beginning of each project, I like to create a palette of sound for that particular project.

I think, for me, a way to really come up with new ideas and come up with new ways of writing music is to create a unique sound palette or soundscape for all the films I'm working on.

My brain subconsciously limits itself to panel compositions that my hand can actually draw.