I must have listened to at least 10 covers of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' - Jeff Buckley's cover is usually my go-to song.
Instead of just hammering away at a song, I'll approach it from a million other angles. Sometimes I'll leave all my equipment set up and just turn on the TV for five minutes; sometimes I've gotta get out of the house. I don't think it every really leaves my head.
The fact that I have done films down South didn't boost or hamper my chances here. In fact, I was still shooting for both my Telugu films when I met Ashu sir for 'Mohenjo Daro.' During the audition, he gave me five scenes with lengthy dialogues. Once I cleared them, he gave me a song to dance to. So, my Bollywood entry was no cakewalk.
I have a wonderful piano that I really love: a handmade Yamaha grand. Sometimes I'm sitting there, and it sounds so good that I find some little melody or a phrase that leads me into a song, but probably more often than not, I actually grab a notebook.
When I auditioned for drama college, they asked me to do my Shakespeare. I couldn't do it. They asked me to do my modern, and I couldn't do it. They asked me if I had a song prepared, and I said 'No,' so I sang 'Happy Birthday.' And I did a reasonable improvisation, a reasonable one, nothing special at all. I don't know how I got in, but I did.
The mall tour was right off of my second record, before it came out. It was very different. I did an acoustic performance every day in a different mall! One interesting thing I remember is playing 'My Happy Ending' a lot, and that song was so new that I remember getting emotional.
A so-called happy marriage corresponds to love as a correct poem to an improvised song.
Technically, a Ghost song could just be piano and vocals, but it could also be full, pounding, heavy-thrashing hard rock.
The hardest part about writing any song is, what do you write? And how do I rewrite things? You start to run out of ideas that feel fresh.
I wouldn't have a No. 1 record or song if I wasn't a hardworking person.
After all my years of doing instrumental music I still like just a simple instrumental song with a nice catchy melody and an opportunity to play a solo over a harmonic structure.
My dad always had me sing alongside him while he played guitar. He taught me how to harmonize to an old song of his, 'Missing You.'
Stampede Wrestling was a promotion started by my grandfather, Stu Hart. When I was competing for them, I would come out 'through the curtain,' slapping everyone's hands to my ring song, Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun.'
I was never a Lime Wire guy because it's too much hassle to find the song.
I've learned this, that haters wanna hate. You could sing a song perfectly, you could write the songs perfectly, and some people are absolutely going to hate you.
When I did 'Wichita Lineman,' it was as good as I could do it, so I keep doing it that way. It's such a haunting song.
I did an album called 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry.' I sang the song on 'Hee Haw.'
People have so much going on in their heads. I'm like, If you could write a song, you'd feel so much better!
In Mali, you hear music everywhere. What is fantastic in Mali is the music tradition is handed down from father to son orally. It is not written. You learn from your father and add something, because you are living now and telling a story to others. This results in many different interpretations of the same song.
If I can reach the guy in Alabama that hunts, and he hears that song, and he sees me - like, he's comfortable with me, my image as a person, as an artist - he's willing to sit down and give that song a chance.
