I've always hated narrative songs. I hate those songs where, basically, it's an unfolding of a story.
When people tell really good stories in songs, I really like it.
The lyrics are different from Nick Cave songs and lyrics. His songs are very narrative.
So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.
I'm kind of a pop balladeer because I love the art of storytelling. I call myself 'HBO for the ears'; I sing little movies.
If you really listen to my music my music is more like stories than party records. I never made party records.
I love story songs. It's just, for me, they're harder to write, and sometimes they sound too intended or something.
Country music has the great stories.
I was always more interested in story songs, things with a point of view... and things that informed me.
A lot of my early career, I wrote story songs that had narratives, that had plots.
The narrative songs were well-written, like an article in The New Yorker. They're nice and pat. They're more like I'm just showing I can do that when I write a song like that. It's not my true calling.
