Rostam Batmanglij Quotes

We love great melodies and great songs that have great hooks and melodies, so we start a little bit more on that side as opposed to other people that start more lyric-based. Sometimes we'll do it the other way.

Once I've got something that I feel is strong, if I get long enough to think about it, it'll turn into something. I'll start thinking about the drums - what the drums are doing, what the bass is doing. Then, if I can remember it by the time I get to a recording device, it'll turn into a song.

I'd say 99 per cent of the time I write on my own, just with my guitar, and then it's trying to figure out what it needs in a production sense.

I think it's his perception of knowing how to make a record build, keeping the integrity of the song in the music and really adding a lot of musical elements to compliment my voice and to compliment the song.

It seems when I put together records, as Henley used to say, they're just like movies. They should have action, tension, love scenes, places to relax.

I'm used to making songs; that's how I learned to make music. My structures will always be more like pop songs than dance tracks.

With 'Under the Pressure,' I just found two chords I liked, and built it up, did like a ten-minute drum pattern.

When it comes to making a song, whatever the beat tells me to do, I do.

I try to make explosive and catchy music, haha.

I love to work with producers who are very good with their chord progressions.

Songs can click together really quickly, and other times, they're really laborious and heavy-lifting.

I know melody. I know rhythm; I know bass guitar; I know the piano. I know everything about music that helps build the music that go along with creating the whole art form, you know what I'm saying?

Plus, we spend most of our time writing music. Most of the time is spent in the studio in my house.

I never write from concept. The beat is the beginning, and then I fill in the rest of the song into what it should be.

So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top.

I wrote 'Actor' all on the computer. I didn't touch any instruments until I was in the studio. So while I had all these ornate arrangements, I didn't have any songs.

I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording.

For me, making music just starts with a simple melody, and lyrics will come sometime after that.

We knew we wanted to put a lot of melody into it - a lot more than what we did on our first album.

I really wish I knew what I was doing because I'd be writing hit songs every minute.

I wrote a song with Kara DioGuardi called 'What If,' and it's a really beautiful song. It's kind of like a rock ballad. There's a lot of guitars and drums in it.

I try to find little things that you can do to move the song along and things that serve the song.

Songs are out there - they're waiting to be grabbed. I start with a phrase, musical and lyrical, words like 'I don't think so' and a nice riff. It rolls from there.

I feel like a hit will come whenever it does, but I don't want to sit in a studio trying to figure out the magic formula and mixing spices and trying to come up with the perfect song.

'MMMBop' took about a year to actually get completed. The chorus idea had really been around for a long time, and then we built the song around it.