Set your guitars and banjos on fire and before you write a song smoke a pack of whiskey and it'll all take care of itself.
I only record songs that I really like and believe in and can sing with conviction.
Capitol Records were very keen for me to write and see how I got on; I think that is what defined my sound. The first session I had was with two young up-and-coming writers, Nick Atkinson and Tom Wilding, and I went into a session a bit nervous because I hadn't written that many songs before.
Usually, I make a simple beat, throw in the acapella, and then I just improvise on the piano. Whatever comes up, I record the result, and I rework on it. Sometimes it takes a while to come with an idea, but mostly it comes naturally because I already have a connection with the song.
I don't doubt love for a second. I'm living for love. Listen to my songs!
When I'm 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I'll be like: 'Cool, I'll just go in the studio and write songs for kids. '
When I was writing some of songs for the record in Galapagos it was the feeling of being there I wanted to evoke more than anything. I remember hearing all the parts of the songs in my mind when I was walking around over the lava fields.
Actually, my first group was a folkloric group, an Argentine folkloric group when I was 10. By the time I was 11 or 12 I started writing songs in English. And then after a while of writing these songs in English it came to me that there was no reason for me to sing in English because I lived in Argentina and also there was something important [about Spanish], so I started writing in Spanish.
I try to find nice chord changes, that's how I love to start, and then I start trying to knock it into a song, knock it into shape.
The nice thing about doing a pop opera is that, because the convention is set from the beginning that this is an opera and everything is sung, there is never that feeling of "Why is this person bursting out into song?" because the whole thing is sung.
I'd be hanging out in my bathrobe all day, stinky, just writing, and my mom allowed me to do this-as long as I was writing songs. She said, 'As long as you're seriously working on music, I'll support you. Don't get a job, because if you work, it will crush you.
Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.
When you're doing the traditional musicals, singing songs that are 40 and 50 years old, you realize there's a reason why those musicals are hits. These are amazing songs!
I know there's nothing that I wouldn't do Go to the ends of the earth for you To make you feel my love
The little song and dance number at the end - that's me, my voice, howling out. It was a new experience for me. I've never sung before and I've certainly never sung on screen. I think I sung on stage when I was 13 and for some reason nobody's asked me to try it again since.
Music is always occurring. It is just a matter of marketing, attention, and many other factors, that determines whether people will hear these songs or not.
I think a song that's got something to say. I'm not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don't last. But I like a song that tells a story and has some meat to it, you know, that means something.
Buy me a drink, sing me a song; take me as I come, cause I can't stay long.
There was this wonderful day where we sat and listened to all of Andy's [Kim] songs throughout the years, and I think we spent around six hours at my house, and then we played all these tunes of mine that have never found any version. And "Heaven Without a Gun" is one of them, and it struck him. If you can find a compadre who doesn't live in the literal world 'cos you're not always fighting to explain yourself to make sense, that maybe it's the dyslexia, maybe it's the dreamer, maybe it's the idea that grammar was not your foreplay - excuse me - see what I mean, your forte.
If you can make the song a soundtrack to what you're living at the time, I think that's the most important part of a song.