Lyrics are important, but it's hard, because English isn't my first language - although it feels like it is these days! I grew up with amazing melodies, so getting that right on a song has always been the key thing for me, but there's no reason why a great melody doesn't deserve great lyrics.
When I was about 14, I got a tacky keyboard for 250 pounds and put on a drum machine and found I could write a song.
Before I can finish one song, another is knocking on my door in my head.
Kodak is hard. 'No Flockin' is an amazing song.
Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.
The Rilo Kiley song 'A Better Son/Daughter' is my most requested song - especially for people who are at the age I was when I wrote it. It's sort of a mid-twenties lament.
I like 'Goodbye My Lover' because it's a really personal song and I recorded it in my landlady's bathroom in Los Angeles. She had a piano in there and for me listening back to it, it actually sounds like the voice I hear in my head. It's so close to what I can imagine.
Where does a man get inspiration to write a song like that? Well, he gets it from the landlady once a month.
From the stage, I can reach a large audience, and you learn from being on stage how much a song reaches, what extent of the crowd a song can reach. I write in a way that can reach most of the audience, but I also wanted to have truly intimate moments as well, many intimate moments, more so than the big moments.
I grew up in some suburb, I'd come out with a song about potholes in my lawn.
I think my most famous was 'Poco's Legend.' It's a white album with a simple line drawing of a horse. It almost has a Picasso feel to it. I remember that Rusty Young, the lead singer of the band, said, 'I want you to draw a horse for the song 'Legend,' which is about a phantom spirit horse. I want you to do it in several lines.'
Say what you want about Maroon 5 not making music like the kind found on 'Songs About Jane,' the fact remains that they know how to write a really good pop song that highlights lead singer Adam Levine's falsetto.
I got into a conversation with EMI, and they said they were very interested in releasing the song because it was such a huge hit online. RCA and Universal were also very interested, but EMI were the best team, so I decided to sign with them. I got my deal because 'Silly Boy' leaked, so obviously now I'm very happy about what happened!
I'm an auditory learner, and if you put something into a song, I'll remember it forever.
There's a song called 'My Faith' that's kind of my spiritual song on my record. It's a little bit of my softer side of me, comin' out of left field a little bit.
Several record companies had rejected my song 'Owner of A Lonely Heart' on the grounds it was 'too left field.' I never create to make a hit just to satisfy some record company executive's quarterly profit statement.
I can't legislate a song into being; it just will not happen for me.
Life is a song to me.
What a character eats is a detail - like eye color or a favorite song. But food is also our lifeblood.
I love the 'Delilah' show. I've been listening to it for years and years. It's incredible. She's always got a song for the right occasion. Many people call in, maybe their spirit it a little down, and she lifts them up. She is really somebody special. She's a lifeline to a lot of people.
