J Mascis Quotes

To be honest, I don't have a particular recipe, but I normally start with the chord progression and then I build it from there. I listen to a lot of jazz, so the chords are really important to me.

Yes, basically, like you said, I'll work out a chord pattern and work out the lyrics over that.

The first thing that inspires any song is a chord progression. When I have one I really like, I get into the lyrics even more.

So writing a song is much harder than doing a classical piece for me, because in a classical piece, I can just let the mood dictate what's going to happen.

Songwriting's a weird game.

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

I usually start with a lyric or a melody and then build a song around that.

When I listen to my favorite songwriters, they have such simple melodies and chords. I occasionally manage to stop at the right time, but all too often I keep on going until I have way too many notes and words. But that's just what I do.

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.

You would find in a lot of Zep stuff that the riff was the juggernaut that careered through and I worked the lyrics around this.

Melodies are important. I always kind of pride myself on my melodies.

It took me a long time to learn how to write a good song.

I don't enjoy songwriting.

I can write hundreds of songs on simple power chords.

We start a lot with melodies and instrumentation and trying to figure out good melodies for verses and choruses. We get to lyrics sometimes second, so we'll start humming a melody, finding something, and see where the music takes you as far as lyrics are and what you want to say and go from there.

When you sit down and write a song, you kind of have the idea for the song, and you sit there at the piano and you kinda just write it. And then of course later there's some dinking around with it and changing some stuff.

I really, really like writing songs.

I don't really know that there's any real rules for songwriting.

Rap is something you can just throw on the skillet and fry up real quick. That's how it comes to me, my train of thought. It's like getting dressed - I don't have to sit down and stare at clothes, I just pick what I like and put it on. But rock, you gotta put it in the oven and let it bake.

There are no rules to writing a song.

It's never easy to write a song. It's the most difficult thing I do.

Melody is king, and don't you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they're not; they're just an accompanying factor. If they're good, you're really in good shape. Lyrics are written to be rewritten.

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

I could tell it was a popular move as a writer to walk down the bass lines while you were writing a song.

I'm a professional songwriter - personal attitudes have nothing to do with writing a song.