Kina Grannis Quotes

I take certain steps to make sure I'm relevant artistically. I always have new music and a reason to be on the road. I'm not just playing 'Get By' over and over. I have 12 albums.

When I first started, the very first body of music I made when I got signed to Atlantic were songs with titles like 'Unify' and 'You're Special.' And there's this song that reminds me of Meghan Trainor that I wrote, about a woman's body and not conforming, when I first started in music.

It's hard for me to say that what I'm doing isn't even really music, because deep inside of me, what I want to do is much greater than music.

I live a normal life. But I'm always thinking about what I'm going to do next, musically. 'Do I need a fresh producer? What was Peter Gabriel doing when he was 32?'

I just love storytelling. I write music to tell stories. So when I'm done writing a song, I take it and go, 'Okay. How can I interpret these lyrics differently?' I love taking lyrics that were so close to me at a certain point in my life and then revamping them. I always want to take things to the next level.

The best part of making music, for me, is collaborating and working with new people and fresh sounds and all those things that gets people excited to continue in this business that we all love so much.

Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.

The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.

I write the vocals last, because I wanted to invent the music first and push the music to the level that I had to compete against it.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.

I realized that there was much more to my voice than I'd ever been led to explore and that I could make my own songs.

My favorite travel pastime is writing music, either with my guitar or on my computer.

I've got more creative control when I do music.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

I don't know what makes a guy want to write songs and sing, but if you've got a message, you want to get it across. When I come up with an idea about the way I feel, I can really state it strongly in a song.

I write a lot of rhymes, but I don't really end up using them a lot of times, and I end up just freestyling. I like to write music, though, more than I like to freestyle, to be honest.

I'm just trying to make my favorite music. That's how I work; I just do things based on the way they feel to me. I want to be touched by the music I'm making. Luckily, other people have shared that response to my work over the years.

On 'Heartbreaker,' I had to sing those songs. I drank the way I did those songs. I ate the way I did those songs. I communicated the way I did those songs. With 'Gold,' I was trying to prove something to myself. I wanted to invent a modern classic.

I can't leave home without certain movies. 'The Godfather' is a big one for me. And I've gotta have my beats so I can write new music.

I just start playing music and eventually I sing something, a line of a verse or a B section or a line of a chorus, and the line that I end up singing is related to the music I'm playing, if that makes any sense. And I go from there.

I wrote music as soon as I knew notation.

I think when you get past your second album, it all becomes something of a routine. So you have to struggle against that, find a way of making what you do sound fresh and new each time.

I may have a little bit of a talent for music, but I've learnt to tap into my own self when I write. When I put the drill bit inside my heart, sometimes I come up with something light and frothy, sometimes with something deep and painful, but it's great to connect with the audience.

I'm inspired to do music. I really can't stop unless I stop being inspired.