Jewel Quotes

I've made three studio albums and one live one with my brother. It's melodic singer-songwriter acoustic-rock music.

I realized that, for me, great records always moved me with the lyrics and the melodies. And so I said, 'I think I can do it now,' 'cause I found a team of people who understand I didn't want a record that was 'drop it, pop it, shake it' just 'cause I can dance.

I've written more songs for this record than I ever have in the past so I'm trying to give it a lot of special attention to be sure my ideas really get translated right.

I've recorded 25 or 30 albums. I know that sometimes when you work with producers who are kinda dictators, it doesn't help you make a better record.

Roadrunner wanted to make Born in the Flood the next Nickelback, but I didn't want to be that. I didn't want to be a huge rock star playing songs I didn't like. I didn't want to be stuck playing 'Anthem,' the song everybody liked but I didn't want to put on the record, for the next five years.

My approach is to be part of a band that makes music, not hit songs.

I like to oversee what I do, so I have a hand in writing my songs. I also have people there to help me with my vision.

I know what it takes to put a record together, so I'm not looking for people to come in and shape it.

If I'm writing for a particular artist, I definitely think about their past records, pay attention to the type of tempos that they like. If I have the privilege of actually being in the session with the artist, I just like to have a conversation with them.

I don't wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don't get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn't interested in that.

With 'Light,' I collaborated with a lot of different producers and musicians I respected, and we all wrote and worked on material which I then took to an old-school producer, David Kahne, and we put it all together. The lyrics came first - they were written before the music.

Who you are as a performer is one thing, but when you're making records, you're dealing with musicians' tastes, their goals, their wants, their needs, everyone's individual pride.

People still kind of think of me as like a folk artist, but on the first record, I truly was deferring to other people to produce me.

I remember when we were mixing our record and our manager was in there going, 'You guys need to sing more, so it can be on the radio.' And we were like 'What? We're never going to get played on the radio. Who cares? What are you talking about?'

We definitely were a punk band. When we got in with our producer, Richard Gottehrer, he slowed everything down so that you could actually hear what Belinda was singing.

Some artists send their verses, and others record in my studio. Depends. I prefer them being there.

I sang my song called "In This Song." David Foster wrote the song for me. I thought that I should sing a ballad song.

I got a couple on per album but my problem was that I wanted to sing the songs and not let Roger sing them.

I write the music, produce it and the band plays within the parameters that I set.

There hasn't been one moment in my career where I felt I didn't have any control over the creative aspects of my records.

The Moment is an album that contains the best music I have ever produced.

Any band that is out there chasing it is doing more destruction to music then someone who is out there playing what they truly feel.

It takes a lot of people hours to make music because they focus so much on one thing. I just do it, and I make something you can just vibe to.

I have to be involved. Whether it's me writing by myself or with other people, I definitely want to have my hand in the creative process. That's part of why I got into music in the first place.

'My Life' is not an autobiography. It's just music.