Kevin Parker Quotes

I've been adjusting to what it means to be a songwriter, figuring out what I like about it and what I don't like about it and what it means to me as opposed to other people.

For me, something will come in my head and I'll either end up calling my cell phone to record it, or I'll just pick my guitar up and see what comes out. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn't. So there's really no set method behind it.

For me, making music is a continuous learning experience, and I think that it feeds itself.

My songwriting process, and maybe loads of other people's, is just this sort of smashing together of emotions and stuff to make some music. It's kind of simple and really complex at the same time and, as you can see, incredibly hard to explain.

I find I'm not one of these composers that are, you know, walking along a beach or walking on the mountainside in County Donegal that's, you know, 'Oh, a melody.' It's more a matter of eventually taking that moment with me to the studio, and it begins to evolve.

How did this or that change my music? The only time I have to think about it is when an interviewer asks me that.

For me to create an album of 12 songs, I've got to write about 80 songs. Half of those are totally weird and rubbish. But I get to some really good stuff after a while.

I try to write down every song that comes to me, even though I know that every song that comes to me isn't a song that I need to sing.

I'm always pulling and really feeding off of my inspirations. I think most musicians do.

It's a joy, the process itself, even instrumentally, playing and constructing music. It's just so beautiful to me.

When I do music, I have a hard time experiencing it like everyone else, because there's so much thought that goes into it. You can sometimes fool yourself into thinking it's better than what it is, which stops me from being creative on the next thing I do.

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 think every time, before we do an album, we have a discussion where we sort of consider the idea of doing something radically different.

When I was doing 'Formula Volume 1,' I had so many ideas that I knew one album was not going to be enough.

When I wrote those first songs for the Truckers, songs like 'Outfit' and 'Decoration Day,' those were strong songs, very strong songs. But had I been in the position of writing an entire album at that point in time, I don't think the whole album would have been of that kind of quality.

I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.

When I do music I don't think about urban music, pop or country, I just think about a good song.

I'm just trying to work out how to write music now, because I've never had the opportunity where my number-one priority is writing music. I don't know how my brain works yet.

Whenever I go into the studio, I'm like, 'Guys, we're probably not going to get an uptempo out of this!'

I really just care about making music and how I can make it next.

Everything I did on the 'Paid in Full' album and those first three albums, I wrote everything right in the studio.

All my writing takes place during the recording of the master tapes. I never do have songs when I start up an album. I actually write them while I record.

I couldn't find a way to write music with numbers and rules and schedules. So I tried to forget the academic idea of music and started to see if it was possible to do creative work, taking in all the influences I wanted to keep.

Usually, when we write in The B-52s, it's quite a collaborative process. We really take hours - and sometimes days - jamming, and then we listen and listen to them and go, 'Oh, let's use this part, and then this part.' It's really like a collage.

'Never Forget You' was the first song I co-wrote.