John Trudell Quotes

Even if I'm writing music, it's with a lyric in mind, to communicate some kind of feeling.

Usually when I write a song, I'll write the music and then kind of fit some words to it.

I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.

I wouldn't sit down and work at writing a song like a novelist or something.

When I write a song, I want to write something that is really catchy and says something that might actually touch somebody.

Songwriting has become such a big part of what I do that emotions and the melodies that accompany them blur into one.

I've always thought of music as something which gives the words their flight and their wings and the music often comes first, although sometimes I'll have a concept, a title idea, a lyric idea that I want to write and the lyric will come first.

When I was writing 'Shotgun,' it's one of the first songs that's come to me as an image.

Every song has a bouquet, which is the music. If you can put words with something that is really apt, then you've done it.

A lot of the great songwriters in history have been collaborators, with a separate lyricist.

I have to have a guitar sitting around. I sing in the shower. I sing around the house. The music comes secondary. The lyrics come first.

I've always written poetry and lyrics. My first husband, who was a musician, we wrote a bunch of songs together.

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

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

I'm touched by Jon Hendricks. I want some of my music to reflect that. And when I write, you're going to hear it.

It must have been when I was 14 or 15 that I started tentatively writing songs and was able to convey an emotion and a lyric with what I wanted to say.

I am a songwriter. I do get to put my personal experiences in song.

I've been writing music since 4th grade, and I love putting words together and expressing things in a way that you can move your head to and you can really relate to, because I have a lot to say.

Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about.

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.

I can't say that I'm always writing in my head but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing or coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and then, you know, maybe the basic idea. But when I feel that I don't have a song or just say, God, please give me another song. And I just am quiet and it happens.

I just want to write a great lyric and write a great song, and everything else is icing on the cake.

I always start with writing vocal melodies before writing lyrics.

Sometimes I have a melody in my head; sometimes it's just a verse. I read lines from a book or movies that I watch and grab a few quotes and start writing on paper. From there, I record a really rough version and work on the song.

I guess I started writing poetry and stuff and then decided to set it to music.