James Iha Quotes

But then you have to write a song, so at that point, I picked up the reins and started to write lyrics.

Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can't.

Ultimately, I'm a fan of music. I describe writing music sometimes as hieroglyphics, like, you know, excavating, gently brushing off these artifacts and discovering the song underneath it all. It seems as if it is already written in it.

I wrote my first song at 6. I spent every day with the guitar, and I just made up songs.

The creative process of composing music has always fascinated me.

Keith Richards has some sort of quote that says 'it takes two people to write a song,' and I'm of that school of thought, too.

I'm always making music. I'm constantly making little musical recordings on my phone or on a little voice recorder I carry with me so I can remember these little pieces of music that eventually becomes songs.

Ever since I picked up a bass, I've written songs.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

I pick up my guitar and play. Something might come, and then the pen comes out. Then an edit, until something comes out that you're actually satisfied with.

For me, making music just starts with a simple melody, and lyrics will come sometime after that.

The first time I learned how to play, my guitar was out of tune. I didn't know it; I just started writing songs.

So, once I get writing I really try and put five to eight hours a day in my room with a guitar to really try and come up with stuff that feels interesting enough to me to keep it.

There's no magic for getting into the groove... just banging away at it. Sometimes the lyrics come first, sometimes the music.

I've written lots of songs on the piano. My mother had a piano and it was the first instrument I played.

The goal is always just to write the best song that you can write. I mean, the process for writing a song is the process for writing a song. It's not something I look at it as something I need to do something different.

The creative part for me is making songs, and that's what I really love the most, and that's what I've always done for every band I've ever had.

It's very demanding to make up your own music.

You have got to make new music, that is the way that I look at it anyway.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

I had a really pleasant time composing music for 'Raaga.'

I'm just trying to work out how to write music now, because I've never had the opportunity where my number-one priority is writing music. I don't know how my brain works yet.

I try to write five or six songs each year and not just in one genre.

I used to just sit in the living room and make up songs on the keyboard.