Jim James Quotes

When I was making my first record there would be something that would come out that would inspire you, you know? You'd see someone on TV or on the radio.

How did I write 'Spin Me?' I listened to Luther Vandross's 'I Wanted Your Love.'

What's cool about making music is when you create a record, it comes from somewhere.

A couple of days working with Joe Jonas, I thought, 'This guy is a slayer of a singer; he's really funny, goofy, and sexy. We need to write that.' And that led to 'Cake By The Ocean.'

I write most of my own lyrics for my album and I am helping to produce some of the songs as well.

A Cat Stevens record isn't just Cat Stevens' ideas. It's Cat Stevens and all the musicians who play with Cat Stevens, right?

Larry only ever wrote one song, and he wrote that with Tony Kaye, I think it was, from Yes.

Artie is a singer, and I'm a writer and player and a singer. We didn't work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.

I'm not one for walking the beaches humming a melody. I love the discipline of sitting in the studio, writing and listening. That is my domain.

Writing music and lyrics, you tend to become a control freak - sitting alone in your room with a bare light bulb over your head, writing communist manifestos.

A lot of the songs I've recorded are songs I write.

A friend and I started a band together. I am kind of learning how to play instruments. We write stuff over Skype or e-mail. I send one part and he writes another.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

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

When I was recording my first solo album 'Imaginaryland,' I was listening to a lot of movie scores.

The recollection of how, when and where it all happened became vague as the lingering strains hung in the rafters of the studio. I wanted to shout back at it, Maybe I didn't write you, but I found you.

When I write songs, it's very random. I get influenced by the most random things! Sometimes it just comes to me in my sleep or just hanging out in a restaurant or something. Music just comes to me, and I'll start writing from there.

With 'Light,' I collaborated with a lot of different producers and musicians I respected, and we all wrote and worked on material which I then took to an old-school producer, David Kahne, and we put it all together. The lyrics came first - they were written before the music.

Even though we didn't actually record it as the Move I had already written a song called 'Dear Elaine', which I subsequently put on the Boulders album. I thought at the time that was probably the best song I'd written.

After Mad Season, I started writing my own music for Pearl Jam and brought it in. 'Given To Fly' came out of that, and so did 'Faithful' - those were on 'Yield,' which came after Mad Season.

I'd love to write a song that someone else sings that can actually sing really well.

It's like... to make a good record - I don't care who you are - it takes a long time and a lot of passion and a lot of attention to detail, right?

Everyone thought my first album would be instrumental, but I didn't want to do it - it took me eight months to make.

Since his childhood, Bappa has observed me singing and practicing and is well aware of all sorts of recording and singing arrangements. I have a studio at my home, so whenever he needs my help I make sure I stand by him. I often sing for the tunes that he composes.

I had been, like, 'I don't wanna be a singer anymore', so dramatic, but when I was recording with Brian Higgins I was like, oh my god I love this, I love these songs, I love what this is. And then we just kept on working and working until we got more songs.