Matthew Ramsey Quotes

I don't sit down to write a song, per se.

I wrote 'Don't Stop' just like I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' - I didn't try to make either a hit. I just wanted to write a song I liked.

I don't sit down to write a country song. I don't sit down to write a rap song. I just sit down to write a song, you know what I mean? And I try to make that song the best it can be.

In Mudcrutch we all wrote songs, and when it got to the focus on Tom and the Heartbreakers, I kept writing songs, but it wasn't anything that was up the Heartbreakers tree, I didn't think - and I don't think they did, either. So I kept writing songs for the hell of it, but I didn't want to make a record just for the sake of making a record.

We all love to sing, and when we sit down to write a song I think it kind of shows itself to us.

The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

I don't really think about what the subject of my next album will be. I just know that I'm going to make another album.

The goal is always just to write the best song that you can write. I mean, the process for writing a song is the process for writing a song. It's not something I look at it as something I need to do something different.

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

However long the song is was how long it took us to write it.

I really like the thing I did with Martina McBride. I had that song sitting around for a long time.

The moment I wrote my first song, I got addicted.

A lot of times when songwriters get together and write a song... somebody will come in with a hook and a lot of times they come out with something that sounds a little crafty.

I met PJ Harvey when I was in England, and the first thing I want to do when I meet a songwriter I admire is to ask them how do they receive songs.

When you're writing with an artist or for an artist, you have to help them serve their vision. That's the cool part about writing songs. There are no rules.

Whether I'm writing solo stuff, electronic stuff, or material for Motley, I just write to write. I come up with it and put things in different piles.

I write the best songs I can.

I always have to be thinking about who's going to be singing this song, what the context is. I don't sit around just writing in a vacuum, ever.

I've always had good songs, it's the great songs that are difficult to find.

I can't even begin to express the joy I get from writing songs, both on my own and with others, I hold it all sacred.

You're always thinking about making new music.

I never had this ego where I must write everything. I'm not Bob Dylan.

For me it's also - the music is equally as important. I mean I think as somebody who writes music, there just has to sort of be the marriage between both.

When you find a song that you love, you just have to do it - why would I try to match it? When I wrote more of the songs in the '90s - 'Nick of Time' and other songs I was surprised I came up with - it was because nobody else was saying what I wanted to say.