RYAN TEDDER

The Beatles are the most credible band in the history of music.

The classic, quote/unquote, craft of songwriting still works; it still is relevant.

Melody is the single most important thing to any song, period. I don't care what anybody says, it trumps everything. Not because that's my opinion but because I think it's actually indisputable fact. The human brain retains melody easier than it retains words. It's that simple.

Writing songs is about trying to connect with people on a deeper spiritual level - but I'm not a fan of contemporary Christian music.

I think the true test of a pop song, for me, and I've talked to a lot of other writers about this, is you take your demo, you pop it in your car and you drive down Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica, and that's the Hollywood car test.

I would rather put out two year-defining songs a year than flood the market with eight or nine songs.

When you're around enormously successful people you realise their success isn't an accident - it's about work.

I grew up listening to English music.

I think the best songs are being written by the very under-stated, under-appreciated indie artists. The thing that separates them from mainstream success is they either consciously or unknowingly refuse to deliver on a big chorus.

I think often times if a guitar riff is centered around the chorus or if it follows the chorus, then it often times turns into the actual hook.

I'm a huge Lady GaGa fan - she makes the world a more incredible place.

I live in Los Angeles, which is the second most polluted city in the world, and I wake up in the morning to dirt all over my window.

The cool thing about writing music, writing anything, is that once you publish it, it's there forever.

I'm a sucker for pop melodies, things you can't get out of your head.

If you're talking to an architect, he can look at a blank piece of paper, and once the initial design is there, the formula kicks in. Each room should have something unique and different about it - much the same way that in a song, every eight bars or so, a new piece of information should be introduced.

I'm not interested in corporate magic or fame.

With iPhones, nobody has an excuse for writer's block. If you're at Whole Foods getting your green tea extract and you have a melody, you just drop it into your voice memo and save it for later.

I am not opposed to doing a side project, like Death Cab for Cutie, where it's completely different from my own band.

Honest always sells. Always has, always will.

I wish people would spend their money on hybrid cars.

I'm just a regular guy, but if you cross me it will get physical.

I'm actually introverted and shy.

I'm terribly forgetful. I've lost laptops, cell-phones.

Nobody works harder than Lady Gaga. Nobody. She is unbelievable. I don't know how she sleeps, or when or if.

When I moved to L.A., I was penniless, absolutely beyond broke and in debt up to my eyeballs.