Yngwie Malmsteen Quotes

I'm far more interested in putting a little more meat into the lyrics than some people are.

Much as I adore the melodies, I choose a song for what it has to say.

Write your own songs. It helps you to mean what you're singing, which will then make it mean something to listeners.

I was never just a 'fill in 16 bars on a beat' rapper. I was making real songs from the jump.

I make music to generate atmospheres, not to complement already existing ones.

I don't know how it is for people who write fiction or literature, but for me, when I'm writing music, especially with this album, I felt compelled to hold up my end of the conversation. I want people to connect deeper with it.

To sing is to bring to life; impossible if the words are mediocre, however good the music.

I love songs that tell stories. They make you feel something, something real.

The popular songs that were written in the 1920s and '30s, '40s and early '50s were written by veterans - mostly men who'd had experience in life. How can you write a lyric if you haven't really lived life?

I remember I heard it in an interview with Michael Jackson one day, saying the art is gone, everybody makes records just to make a record. See, I always want the artist that try to build a whole body of music on one album, so you can enjoy it. So you could say, 'I went with him here, I went with him here.'

I've written songs about things that nobody else has ever written about.

I believe in working with songs that have personal value for me.

I'm a songwriter who's put my childhood memories and teenage angst into songs.

I try to write catchy hooks but, at the same time, things that mean something that will provoke thought.

I am just trying to do a song the best possible way I can.

I want something that's going to linger and stay with me and give me something to think about and chew over. That's the real objective here; it creates something that doesn't feel disposable.

Because somebody plays guitar, why does it mean they need a singer? Because people already have this image of things? No, I'll put my music together, then think about whether I need to embellish it with a singer.

That's why we do this. In country music, we do this for this very reason... to impact people lyrically, to be a part of their lives.

The only thing I don't write is the guitar solos, but even then I might suggest one or two things.

In some ways, the more that I write songs, the more I feel that telling a story is the most important thing; just being able to close your eyes when you hear some lyrics and go somewhere.

I can make a record when I think I have a good one.

If I don't feel it when I'm sitting there, if it doesn't give me the feeling I got when I heard 'Pony' or 'So Anxious' or 'In Those Jeans,' I scrap it.

When I am writing music, I sometimes envision a video playing alongside.

I see my songs and shows almost like a mosaic - part of a bigger picture.

I know, deep down, that what makes my music what it is are my words. It always starts from me wanting to say something. Once I've run out of things to say, I'll be done.