Joel Madden Quotes

We were definitely new to the whole music thing. The first album was a real collaborative effort between us, the writers, and the A&R people at Columbia Records. We really worked to find out what our sound was.

Because of my interest in songwriting, I was invited to visit a friend in L.A. for songwriting sessions with him and his friends. We wrote six songs by the end of the weekend, and 'Hide Away' happened to be one of them!

My next record I really just want it to be a collection of great songs, classic songs in a way.

I never really made a full album in Los Angeles before.

My dream job would be sitting in a room, cranking out hits for Rihanna.

My mom eventually told me if I wanted to be in the music industry, I should start writing my own songs. At that time, I was in junior high and had no idea where to start - I was writing joke rap songs with friends. Eventually, I wrote my first song in high school, and my mom took me to go record it with one of her band member friends at his house.

I will always really work hard to write as much as I can, but I also love sitting back and waiting on those big Nashville songwriters to send me some great songs, too.

Capitol Records were very keen for me to write and see how I got on; I think that is what defined my sound. The first session I had was with two young up-and-coming writers, Nick Atkinson and Tom Wilding, and I went into a session a bit nervous because I hadn't written that many songs before.

I dabbled a little bit in the whole music thing but I've always thought about Bernie Taupin, who is Elton John's lyricist; Elton John is the great melody and song writer but Bernie Taupin is the one who writes all the lyrics. I don't write lyrics, and I never wanted to be in the music business if I was just going to be a puppet in it.

I think that songwriting changed when groups started spending more time in the studio.

I've just always been around great songwriters. To me, they were the standard.

I've just tried for all of these years to find the best records, the best songs that I could find that fit me, and I've had great people to work with all these years.

I will write a verse or a story and bring it into a songwriting session, because that's what's big in Nashville - the collaborative part of songwriting.

I'd love to write with some people from the U.K., like Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande... there's a very long list.

My goal is to make music and be a part of cool projects.

I've been in the room or watched artists walk in who don't write, and you can't figure out what they really want.

We didn't move to L.A. to move to L.A. We moved to make music with Muggs.

With songwriters like me who are prolific, you just write the song and then put it on tape.

I was a staff songwriter for Combine Music Publishing in Nashville for seven years. I'd sit around with a groups of friends with a Yamaha piano and a tape recorder and crank out songs.

I want to do a song with Rihanna - we need to make that work.

We travel so much as touring musicians and artists that sometimes, when you hear a great song that you really think could be on your project, you go ahead and record it instead of try to write it.

I can find myself in a situation where, by the time I'm releasing an album, I have the next one written. It is a bit old school.

Acting comes first. I would love to make an album. I was at an event... for Dionne Warwick, and we got to go in the studio and go crazy. I love singing, but it's very time consuming. I have to make time for it.

When you love what you do, you just really fall in love with it. Sometimes you record a lot more songs than the album will even hold. You record like 300 songs and only 12 songs go on the album. It takes time. But if you love what you do, it works out.

I guess we decided to make a new record 3 years ago when Nancy was done scoring for Almost Famous.