I was the Specials' founder, main songwriter and keyboard player.
Music and songs have always been a constant part of my life, and still are. My brother Michael, who is a songwriter and composer, is the one who most fully inherited the musical legacy of our family, but I got some part of it - mostly the feel.
I wanted to be a songwriter. I didn't so much want to be a performer. I more grew into that just from being a songwriter.
I love Darius Rucker. He's a true artist, a great songwriter who can play his instrument, sing and write about his life.
I might be a completely different kind of songwriter but I definitely think there are some things. . . I've taken pieces from different people that I've met and worked with.
Bob Dylan is quite a songwriter, and a great singer and musician. I won't bother with comparing myself to him, but I will say that I heard his records at a very young age and I still listen to all his records.
Dude, okay, so you're gay. You may consider that to be different, but you're not different. You have two jobs. You have to go out there and be the best artist that you can be. You've got to go out there and be the best songwriter that you can be. You simply have to be great at what you do and then your dreams will fall into place. Who you are is just a part of that dream, a part of your story.
My dad said to me the other day, I really am an artistic person. I was shocked as I never saw him as a creative. I think me and my sisters are living out that side of him as my sister is another creative person, she's a songwriter.
As an artist, I always just want to grow as a songwriter. I listen to a lot of music. I listen to music all the time, whether it's hip-hop or soul or rock or whatever. I'm always listening to music and trying to learn from other songwriters and how they tap into certain emotions and communicate more clearly.
I feel I want to grow as an actress and be better. I want to progress as a singer and songwriter, and produce movies and everything. So there'll be no time when I feel I've done it all.
I wouldn't consider myself a songwriter at all. Maybe I piece together a certain little thing here and there, but songwriters are people who do this with sheet music.
I was a different person before I started to write. When I realized I could be a songwriter and that people would listen - that was when I started feeling good in my life.
I'm a songwriter first.
If you're a songwriter, it's to perform your songs. For singers, it's just to get to sing somewhere. So while there may be a reluctance with all the things that go along with it, you got to choose, and this is one of my big opportunities to get back doing it.
I'm always shocked by that! I'm not the singer, I'm the songwriter who sings.
As a songwriter, you might write every day and throughout the course of a year you might get four songs that are really special.
Conflict is a great thing to start with. For me as a songwriter, I am constantly trying to solve problems.
I feel, as a songwriter, it's one of the hardest things to do - to sit down and say how you feel.
When you ask a songwriter, "What's your favorite song?" he goes, "The next one. "
It's hard to be serious about so many things. [Look at the whole emphasis] on the charts, if you're a songwriter.