Jason Isbell Quotes

As a songwriter, I go into the studio, and I just try to write a great song.

Working as a musician, I have to constantly generate new material, so school keeps me sharp. Reading and writing all the time helps me to be a better songwriter.

I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.

Anyone who writes knows that ultimately the majority of your time is spent alone in a room with a piano or a guitar, no matter what the project is.

I would always write lyrics and songs on the piano.

It is the melody and the rhythm that are by far the most important and then words and imagery and stuff, story bits will start to stick to a melody and that is the way I write.

As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm.

Being a songwriter is really the base of being an artist, for me.

It doesn't take me long to write songs.

For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

The classic, quote/unquote, craft of songwriting still works; it still is relevant.

I have to have a guitar sitting around. I sing in the shower. I sing around the house. The music comes secondary. The lyrics come first.

I really believe in melody.

Finding fresh song topics can sometimes be quite difficult.

I've been a list maker for years, even before I was a musician. I was always writing things down and kept long lists of things that would make good album titles and things like that. I'm constantly thinking in terms of songwriting.

I am really heavy into songwriting.

I enjoy songwriting. It's slow-motion improvising.

Songwriting is kind of like a craft. It's not something that just comes in a dream. You've got to work at it.

A lot of times when songwriters get together and write a song... somebody will come in with a hook and a lot of times they come out with something that sounds a little crafty.

Freddie and Brian tend to write the majority of the material.

The main thing is that I've been studying composition for the last four years. I'd say it's the life experience combined with the lessons that enabled me to go much further.

I think if you're a good songwriter, that's what you are first - not a star or celebrity.

I ain't never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

I generally, you know, I don't - I don't really scat. I'm - I'm basically a songwriter so you need a little lyrics that rhyme and stuff.

If you want to be a songwriter, you've got to obsess over it.