Santiago Durango Quotes

There's so much you can do with laying words on a bed of music. You can completely change their meaning with the type of music or the way they're sung.

A lot of the lyrical ideas do have a lot of meaning in a way, although it is somewhat abstracted.

It's a different process for me, but it's really cool to hear someone else singing the song that you wrote.

Hearing other peoples' interpretations of your lyrics, to me, is just a total kick in the pants. Half the time, they're better.

What I like doing is writing and recording and much more on the, I guess, the - on that creative level. It's fun interpreting songs and all that, but I wouldn't like it as a living.

When you write a song you have an idea of how it should be sung but it doesn't work out that way if someone else records it.

I just try to get inside the song and imagine what comes next.

My songs are self-explanatory... somebody pointed out to me that... my songs pretty much speak for themselves.

Singers, like Frank Sinatra and myself, we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written, we go back to the greatest songs and bring about my interpretation of them.

It's not like making records is terrible. Still, I do find the writing of the songs and the live shows to be the things that give you the most clear picture of what it's all about.

I usually write my music on a piano, and I really enjoy performing that way, because that actually shows how the music was in my mind before it actually became an electronic song.

It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most. Singers, like Frank Sinatra and myself, we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written, we go back to the greatest songs.

Artists who write songs... what they're going through usually comes through in their music.

Sometimes the song title comes with the songs, other times you just sorta make something up afterwards.

We just wanted to write a bunch of songs that we thought were good songs.

I look forward to the future - and going into the studio to make new music.

I'd say almost that words come first, melody second.

I always like to write the songs, and they get turned loose into the world, and who knows what happens to them. That's the joy of being a songwriter. You get to hear what other people do, interpretation-wise.

Usually, the song will tell me who it belongs to. It seems clear to me who would do a good job with it, who it suits.

I just want to make the best music I can make.

At this very early stage in my career, I want people to experience the music first and let it drive their imagination and their experiences.

You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies.

Music is a very physical experience, and I need to understand things physically to be able to create the narrative for them.

It's hard for me to always explain my songs, and people always expect a meaning and to know what it's about. Sometimes when I write these songs I'm feeling a particular emotion, so to then come back and explain what I was feeling or put it into words is quite difficult.

As a songwriter, metaphor is instinctual.