Kate Pierson Quotes

I never had this ego where I must write everything. I'm not Bob Dylan.

To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.

Everyone wants to get into soundtracks. Everyone wants to do songs here and there. But, I think they want it for different reasons. I think I'm just tumbling through my life, enjoying playing with everybody.

When I'm sick of myself, and when I don't know what to say as a solo artist, I can write a song for a movie. When I don't know where to turn musically, being in a band - Rilo Kiley or Jenny & Johnny - the collaborative nature is really exciting.

As I've matured as a songwriter, I realize that if it's out there, it's mine.

Well, in Japan, I have got a group of musicians that I have worked with a lot, that concentrate just on the hardcore stuff, say, that Naked City has been working on. We have like a repertoire of sixty songs now.

I just had to find something else to fulfill me. Always being a singer and writing, it was a blessing. My brother started making music that was the kind of music I always saw myself singing.

When you're writing with an artist or for an artist, you have to help them serve their vision. That's the cool part about writing songs. There are no rules.

You can really walk around a song and completely, if it's a good song, look at it from a lot of different angles. Johnny Cash with Rick Rubin illustrated that perfectly.

Until Mad Season, I didn't have that confidence to write songs, and I really got it, playing with these guys. It meant the world to me.

I like writing and don't confine myself to just the words or just the music. But I don't particularly write songs with myself in mind.

I think, now that I've been writing songs in general, whether it's for the group or for me, I definitely feel like I got a little trigger happy, because it was so exciting to have production and create and put a lot in there.

Me and Kurt Cobain were both listening to a bunch of Lead Belly and diggin' it. We thought, 'Let's do an EP of all Lead Belly songs.' We did a couple, and both of us were like, 'Nah, this is a bad concept.' We set it aside.

The only thing that makes sense to me that I've learnt over the years is knocking tunes together.

I've wanted to do a solo album since 2000 when I was writing songs for the 'Machine' record.

I don't know what he wants to do musically, but at the end of the day, I love Mick Mars - he's one of the sweetest human beings you'll ever meet in your life - and anything I can do to help him with his solo record, I would be more than happy to do.

I can't even begin to express the joy I get from writing songs, both on my own and with others, I hold it all sacred.

You're always thinking about making new music.

To be able to take music and do something as profoundly original as what we did with the Allman Brothers, you've got to put some time into it.

I am - you know, I'm getting to do everything I've ever wanted to do, anything my imagination can think up. I'm getting to play with some of my favorite musicians in the world, ranging from Russell Allen to Billy Sheehan to Paul Gilbert to Steve Morse.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm just writing songs that I like, and that's where I've always come from.

I grew up, and I'm getting the chance to make music with the people I idolized.

Sometimes you can gauge the excitement of the rest of the band. If I'm bringing a song in and they're excited, then I'll hold on to that one. But there are times where it's like, 'Eh, I don't really like that one,' and we have to send that one on.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be either a pianist or a classical singer, and when I discovered songwriting, it was like a new portal had been opened.

I still love to go in the studio and write and all that.