I couldn't afford to go to the record store to buy new tapes, so I'd tape everything off the radio. Just hit record when my song came on. I used to take my mom's tapes and tape over them. I had a nice little collection. Had my own Stephen Jackson mixtapes off the radio!
Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it.
I've woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I'm listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.
There was a recording studio in my school, and I knew this kid who had a key, so I'd write lyrics in school while I was in class, and then, in a 10-minute break, I recorded the song 'Hurt' in one go at the school studio.
I enjoy albums, not a song here and there. The recordings I like have been a soundtrack to a universe.
I wanted to write a song about war and that classic 'We want you' recruitment style from the point of view of the recruiter.
It's funny how concert dreams are such a recurring thing among musicians. It's like how everyone has that dream of their teeth falling out? Except musicians have this dream of just standing onstage and there being all these people out there, and for some reason, the song isn't starting.
Stony Skunk, when they were with our company, had a song which I personally like called 'Red Light District.'
In Holland, there's a song that goes, 'Redheads - they know how to kiss.' But that's obviously not a song I made. I don't know who made that song.
But when you get to a song, not only do you have to do a vocal melody, you have to write words and not be redundant and make some semblance of a story.
On occasion, I hear a rearrangement of a song that really makes me reevaluate it in a way.
I'll refer to my music in color, like 'This song needs to be bright red.'
Once I've written a song, I sometimes refine them.
Song Sung Blue took a lot of compressing and refining, and it has one of my favorite lyrics.
At my shows, I want to be totally sharp and focused on every single song, on every single thing that I do, and plus, I have to because I'm, like, caking someone and have to run back and mix the next song... and I have so much fast, quick reflex timing.
Every one of my regrets has produced a song I'm proud of.
Anyone can rehearse and play constantly any song in the world.
I would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they're such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words.
A song like 'Heartbreaker,' it's a song about learning - it's not necessarily a song about heartbreak. It's more than that. We write those songs to relive how we got over something.
When I was eight, my mum found me humming to myself and scribbling on a scrap of paper. When she asked me what I was doing, I got shy. I was writing a Christmas song, and I had never shared my music with anyone before. Reluctantly, I sang it for her... and she loved it. Of course she did - she's my mum.
