Claudia Lee Quotes

Any time you write a song, you kind of know what you want from it. You know what you're getting from it.

I think that a song, when it works, never mind a piece of long form music, even a song is something that speaks to itself but has a language all of its own, ideally.

I feel like, as an artist and a songwriter, I have to reach certain audiences and give people a little bit of everything.

I don't really know what inspires me to write the music I do, but usually, the music will set the tone for the lyrics.

My favorite song is called 'Reachout.' There are so many different stories told in that song. I think anyone who listens to it will gather a different meaning, but each answer is true. I also like the sound of it, period - there are a lot of classical influences.

The blessing of being able to write music and let music speak for itself is you let the melodies and let the lyrics and the groove talk to people instead of me talking to people.

I think it's exciting that fans can immediately pick up on what my music is about and what I'm leaning towards: that they get to actually feel it.

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

I'm just thinking about the vision for how I want my music to go and what I want it to say. I'm always creating in a way, even if it's just thinking about it.

I want people to really recognize that this is what I am naturally good at: I'm really good at making music and describing your feelings vicariously through my experiences, through my past and my future. I want people to relate to me in multiple ways and be versatile in my music.

What should a song be about? It's a trick question for songwriters because lots of amazing songs aren't 'about' anything. Or, at least, they're not about anything that's obvious or logical.

That's what we get to do as songwriters, right? You get to explore stuff.

There are some things that I write that I know are personal in a way, or the gag is so obscure that it's just for me, and there's other things that could basically be for anybody or be anything, at least until the lyrics start to get written.

I am an open book through the songwriting.

I try to write five or six songs each year and not just in one genre.

When I write songs, I write from a lot of perspectives.

When I make my socially conscious songs, I go hard with the lyrical content; I go hard with the imagery.

I don't really like to talk about what my songs are about.

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.

My first album was very eclectic and very soft as a vocal expression.

All my favorite artists were pretty serious in the sense that their music was something I could sink my teeth into, from Peter Gabriel to U2 to these artists that made me want to read the lyrics and dig into it.

Writing has never been an intentional endeavor to me. I know a lot of people have experiences and then sit down and try to sort them out through song, but whenever I sit down to write, it comes out hackneyed or overly saccharine.

Lyrically, I've always thought about albums as a record of a period of time.

I have never composed a song keeping in mind that I should touch any social issues.

I don't know, I've always written songs that are mainly about attitude, not me personally.