Ian Gillan Quotes

Coldplay are just four friends trying to make great music.

I didn't want to be a solo Westlife - covers and ballads - and the reason I signed with Capitol Records was because they wanted me to write songs myself. It was pretty scary, but they put me in a studio in Nashville with some new songwriters, and the results were pretty good.

And I can say this, most of the people who have recorded my songs are songwriters themselves.

People are quite shocked when you remind them that Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra never wrote a song that they recorded in their lives, as far as I know.

Some people see Jermaine Dupri as a producer, and they don't really know what the songwriting skills are.

I naturally make commercial music: it's never been a calculated decision to make pop music. I'm a genuine pop music fan.

My first album after 'American Idol' I did with Desmond - we paid for it together, and we literally were together working on it every day for a year and half, just writing. We wrote in New York, Nashville, L.A., Sweden - we wrote with some other amazing songwriters like Diane Warren, too.

I wrote songs with the guys from Air Supply for their record... So I was just writing songs.

I don't write all my stuff. Everybody always thinks that. But in just about every album I've ever had has been about 50-50 songs I've written or co-written and other people's songs.

It's not the case of turning in a bunch of songs and recording the next month. I think you're looking for songs all year long and you're writing all year long.

Prince used to call me up 3am in the morning and invite me to hear some of his new songs.

Whenever I fill out the job description I put 'songwriter', never 'singer' or 'artist.' Singers come and go.

I've always had a lot of creative impact on the music with Timbaland.

Growing up as a singer, and a cast member, and now as an adult, a songwriter, I get the luxury of choosing the kinds of songs that I want to sing, because I'll write, you know, hundreds of songs. Even though only 12 appear on the album. That's 12 that I've chosen to sing of my catalog.

I am thrilled to have been able to put together this new album. I listened to everything I had recorded in the 24 years with Elektra, and then just took all the ones I am mad about.

I did this thing with Trisha Yearwood, a song called 'The Price.' I had been sitting on it for a while, because I figured, you know, this really needs a good singer.

Anyone who takes the craft of songwriting seriously I radiate towards. Spending time with Daryl Hall was a dream come true. I picked his brain a lot because Hall And Oats is timeless.

The kids of today have taken over the music business - most of them very young. Simply because they write and jot down a few notes, they have the idea that they can write songs.

Capitol Records were very keen for me to write and see how I got on; I think that is what defined my sound. The first session I had was with two young up-and-coming writers, Nick Atkinson and Tom Wilding, and I went into a session a bit nervous because I hadn't written that many songs before.

I've never forgotten a single record I cut or a song I wrote.

Creating a decent pop song is a challenge - and occasionally, once in every decade - it's kind of fun to do that.

Music is just a really fun hobby that I do, because I'm actually really good about writing songs and producing. People don't realize this, but I am an excellent writer for artists.

Anybody who thinks pop music's easy should try to make a pop single and find out that it isn't.

Either you write songs or you don't. And if you do write songs like I do, I think there's a natural desire to want to make records.

I would like to work with Ed Sheeran at some point. I really admire his songwriting, and I just think he has a great voice and great artistry. Who else? On the producer side of things, definitely Diplo: that'd be awesome.