If I make a song where I'm happy, I sound completely mad - I think my voice is better-suited for sadder songs.
A song is like a saddle: you ride it for a while, and if it's the right kind of song you can sing it for the rest of your life.
I think all songs should have weather in them. Names of towns and streets, and they should have a couple of sailors. I think those are just song prerequisites.
Because of my song 'Sam Stone,' a lot of people thought I was interested in writing protest songs. Writing protest songs always struck me as patting yourself on the back.
I'll flip samples where one's a completely dark song and the next one is a complete sexual song. People think my whole thing is a dark thing, but I don't.
Ever since I visited Paris when I was younger, the sappy side of me really wanted to write a song about it someday.
Justin Hayward was a teenager when he was drafted into the Moody Blues in 1966. He brought with him one song he had written for his girlfriend. This was called 'Nights in White Satin,' which subsequently made a fortune for a lot of people.
Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.
I don't think Flo Rida gets on just any song. If you look at the songs he has done - even The Saturdays one - was a hit. If it's not good enough, then he won't do it.
I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.
You hear a lot of rap songs about spending money. I thought, wouldn't it be funny to make a song about saving money because it's ironic, but beyond irony, I genuinely have pride in saving money.
As a horn player, the greatest compliment one can get is when a person comes to you and says, 'I heard this saxophone on the radio the other day and I knew it was you. I don't know the song, but I know it was you on sax.'
You're always going to write and draw inspiration from things that you're feeling, things that you've felt. It's kind of impossible not to unless you're writing a song and there's an exact scenario that you're trying to write a song for.
I shouldn't have acted. I didn't exhibit any ability. I was one of the kids in the school play who was just mouthing words, and they weren't the actual words of the song. I was pretty lame!
I bring my classical training - some of it, but not all of it - and also my background and culture, to spirituals. And I try to leave room for that unpredictable factor, where the feeling of the song is allowed to come through. The same ethos can be applied to singing Mozart, or Schubert, or Bach. It's not just about what's on the page.
A Schubert song, the A-major chord at the opening of Wagner's 'Lohengrin' - such incredible beauty is a mystery, the divinity of music.
When I signed with Scooter Braun and I decided to go overseas to promote my song, the only concern was how should I communicate with the public and the audience with my language. Scooter and I talked a lot about that: should we translate or not? Finally we didn't, and I think that was a really good decision.
I was about to walk on stage at the Kansas Speedway - I was playing a NASCAR race - and I said to Scooter Carusoe, who was standing side stage, 'I want to write a song called 'Wanna Be That Song.' Then I put my earphones back in and walked right out on stage.
I was 13 years old. I feel like I didn't have a sense of artistry, and I didn't have a sense of the music that I wanted to make, and every time I'd go into the studio, and I'd make my EP, a month later I'd scrap it and be like, 'I hate every song. I don't wanna do it.' Because that's how 13-year-olds are.
The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?
