I mostly listen to things that are so different because there's something so intriguing about trying to understand where someone is coming from.
I guess there's a song for absolutely everything that could possibly happen to a person.
Looking at the original lyrics [of "A Song For You" ] as I was preparing it, I thought, "Wow! I feel like it was written for me." That's what a great song does. You don't have to do a lot of homework. You can just say the words and it springs to life.
I think that the whole point of music is that there shouldn't be rules. There is no right or wrong. And the fact that I may not like that piece of music and you may... The validation is in the fact that somebody gets something from it.
And I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it.
The heart that feels music will feel people
Could I imagine being a piano? That'd be awesome. I'd throw a D-minor at you to make you sad, then an F-major to make you happy!
I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others.
Songs are as sad as the listener.
What songwriting does better than almost anything is empathy - it's incredibly empathetic. The reason people sat around in bars when they were bummed out and listened to country songs is because it made them feel better in the long run.
What music is better able to do than language is to represent the complexity of human emotional states.
I always say if music can't make you cry, you're a hopeless case. I don't cry very much myself, but it's my job to make you cry.
I think listening to real classic soul material made me learn how to feel music that's sung.
Each song has its own way that it likes to be done, but it can be more than one way. If you tap into it, you can feel it.
I've always been able to get inside a song really easily, and if it's my song, I can make it seem honest.
Everything has a feeling to it, even if it's not your type of music - it has a feeling for somebody in the world.
Listening is the key to everything good in music.
When you listen to someone's songs, their soul comes through.
The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
Even if you don't like what I do, and you don't like my band, you might have a fan that likes both of us, and why would you wanna alienate them?
It may not necessarily reflect my current frame of mind. Sometimes I have to put myself at the point in time of the voice that I'm trying to sing with.
It's not so uncommon for me to get so wrapped up in a song that I cry several times when I sing them. That's the difference between my music and some of the other folks.
I have such a love of good music that I find even melancholic music uplifting. Maybe I'm a rare breed.
The game is if the orchestra can hear each other, they play better. If they play better and there's a tangible feeling between the orchestra and the audience, if they feel each other, the audience responds and the orchestra feels it.
So there's no guarantee if you like the music you will empathize with the culture and the people who made it. It doesn't necessarily happen. I think it can, but it doesn't necessarily happen. Which is kind of a shame.
