Feist Quotes

A lot of times, people assume that I write all the songs: that I arrange them and I stick Kevin up there as kind of a puppet or something. It's absolutely not that way. In fact, he writes probably 60 percent of the songs, and I write probably 40 percent.

I think getting the rest of the guys in the band to write is important.

I'm definitely responsible for coming in with some basic chord changes, or ideas. Everybody in the band looks to me to come up with the basic seed, so it's not very productive to come in with nothing.

In our band, every member has input, but me and Steve do the majority of the writing. We start the songs, the rest of the band help us finish it.

It's different for every song. But for 'Say Something,' I think it was Chad who had an idea on guitar, and I had an idea on piano for different songs, and we just married them together. We bounce things off each other constantly and kind of massage all these ideas into a three and a half minute pop song.

We really try to make sure that the band writes the songs, not just one person.

With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'

I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.

It's very hard to write a song alone. It's only by jamming that you can get a song together.

I usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don't always know how to get there.

I've become more interested in creating a band sound than trying to outshine the other guys.

Sonic Youth has a very democratic process for the most part. It almost doesn't matter who brings in an initial idea; everything gets worked over by the band and kind of co-written by everyone in the end because everyone's ideas get contributed to it.

In a band everyone plays their part, and I look at production the same way.

Being a three piece, maybe it's easier. You only have two other guys, musically, and everything else to contend with and work with.

I put all those synthesizer sounds behind "Decoy" and "Code M.D." A lot of things we write together. A lot of things are his, but they don't have that thing I want on the bottom. I often tell him, I say, "Bobby [Irving], if there's a melody, there's another one somewhere that goes with it."

I've always loved playing in bands where there's like three or four people and we're all throwing out ideas and coming together to make an album.

I compose melodies in my head and then interpret them musically with my guitar and keep them recorded. The guitar helps me to build unique chord structures on simple melodies.

I bought a guitar when I was twenty. But I didn't write a song until I was 25 or 26. I never learned to play others songs. I learned to play my own songs while I was learning how to make them better.

Sonic Youth has always been the vehicle for my writing, you know, because it's a collective songwriting entity: we write our songs as a group.

The creative process of composing music has always fascinated me.

I really feel like I've written my most effective music in the instrumental realms.

Technology has very little to do with what I do. I have a purpose built studio but all I need for writing is my piano and a cassette recorder as I still use cassettes.

Composing music for 'Mungaru Male 2' is a big responsibility and challenge.

I'm not one of those guys who can just take a guitar into a room and come out with a song. I need all my instruments dotted around.

All my songs were made at the end of the neck, 'farmer's corner' chords.