Imelda May Quotes

I want to relate. I don't want to just rap and go to the next album.

A lyric has to mean something to me, something that has happened to me.

I decided at 15 that I didn't want to be one of those artists that gets up and sings love songs they don't mean. I decided that I was going to be me to the fullest extent, that my songs were going to reflect relationships I've had, things I've been through, and even the stuff I'm embarrassed about.

Every single lyric I've ever written I meant.

Everything that I do is very autobiographical. I'm trying to be as much of an open book as possible and give the audience every single piece of me.

Sometimes I think it's the responsibility of the artist to reveal a little more of themselves.

You do your best to tell your own story, in the most specific way, and then you hope that that travels well, when it's done with heart and honesty.

I don't think I could write about something I've never experienced or felt; all my songs are about things I've been through.

Here's the thing: we don't write music for a universal statement; we just share our experiences. And that's all it is. It's always raw and very authentic.

There is no seam between my songs and myself-they really are me. It's not like I'm performing; I'm just singing stuff that I really believe.

Anyone who wants to know who I am can just read my lyrics - I've always written about who I am.

I'm not afraid to use my personal experiences and put them into a song. I think that's when you get the best stuff anyway, when it's real emotion.

If I'm writing strictly for others, how does that show what I'm experiencing or thinking? I just got to a point where I realized I could be as personal as I wanted to be and people could relate to those situations if they so choose.

When I'm picking songs for an album I always want a song that I can relate to and that I have experienced. There's nothing worse than watching an artist try and sell a song that isn't believable coming from them.

I like to write about the things I care about. It's no fun to sing about things you don't like.

When people express what is most important to them, it often comes out in cliches. That doesn't make them laughable; it's something tender about them. As though in struggling to reach what's most personal about them they could only come up with what's most public.

I always question if somebody else is going to love my films. I think that's what art is about - it's so individual.

You know, I've sung a lot of emotional songs in my life, but when you're writing it yourself, it's very difficult to decide what to reveal.

When you write, no matter what, it ends up personal.

It's the most personal thing that I do is sing. Because I can't tell a lie. I want them to know exactly what I'm feeling.

I'm a firm believer in putting your experiences in your writing, of bleeding into the page.

If I go into a studio and find my truth of the moment, there are a number of people in the world who can relate to what I'm saying and are going to buy into what I'm doing. Not because it's the new thing of the moment, but because it's genuine emotion. Its how I feel. This is how I articulate the world.

When writing songs, especially if they're kinda semi-true to you, a lot of people hide behind whatever their idea of themselves is in the record, and every now and then, you might make a song that exposes something a little too much about you, and there's a part that doesn't want yourself to be exposed.

When someone is themselves through their music, it's soul music. James Taylor is soul music to me 'cause it's just him talking about him. It doesn't have anything to do with black or growing up in the church; it's where it comes from. It's just soul music.

I don't believe soul is something you can fake. I'm trying to make my music as real as possible, because I feel this is my form of communicating with the world.