Song Craft Quotes

I'm obsessed with great endings and crazy intros and stuff like that. I think we all are from what we've listened to and stuff, so I've always focused on great bridge melodies that just kind of naturally fit, or like a crazy ending at the end of 'Seize the Day,' something like that.

If a woman's aim is to become a singer, I would highly advise her to first develop her craft in songwriting. It's such a powerful tool to have when you're a singer.

I love pop music. It's not easy to write a good pop song.

I like to keep morale up and not take things so seriously all the time. I enjoy life and laughs but I'm serious about the music. Serious about the craft of songwriting.

I realized probably when I was, like, 20 years old that the hardest thing to do is to write a pop song - not, like, a candy-pop, throwaway pop song.

People assume that a lot of pop artists don't write their songs. That, for me, is super frustrating because I think it detracts from some of the art and some of the craft of what we do. I'm at the helm of it, and I think that is what people don't see.

I don't mind a repetitive chorus; I mind repetitive verse. I mean, it's the same amount of space. Why would you have only three diamonds if you can have six?

Songwriting is something I really need to work on. I don't have very many songs but I really love it. I would love to be a great song writer some day.

That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.

There's a lot of craft that goes into achieving a hit song - at the beginning of your career, you're usually more inspiration than craft, and you get great when those intersect. A skilled songwriter can get you to that intersection.

My favorite songwriting trick is writing something like 'XO.' In my brain, I thought, 'This is probably going to be a love song. How can I change that and find ways to twist that.' As a songwriter, it's your job for the song to take twists and turns that people don't expect.

I feel like a lot of people look at pop music with a very formulaic perspective in numbers and patterns, but an outsider would think that the process is very natural. It is, but there are a lot of times where people treat it like a sport - there are tricks you can pull, different combinations that make something better. I don't really think I approach it that way, but I definitely have a love for the science that is pop song writing.

There's this art form in songwriting that's incredibly difficult - to be really funny in a song and also really touching. I can't do that.

We wanted to take as much time and effort making the video as we did the song.

Tori Amos had a major influence on how I craft words in a song.

I wasn't worried about flash or persona... It's all about writing a good, solid song.

I came to Nashville in the early '90s, and I thought, 'OK, enough is enough. I write songs; I just don't have the backbone to show it to anybody. I want to go to Nashville and learn how to properly write a song.'

Along with a sense of humor, my songs have to be sincere, and they have to be sung from a position of inner conviction.

Laurie Lewis' songs combine passion and sheer craft in a way you don't hear very often. Whatever country music is supposed to be, she's at the center of it.

I'm a professional songwriter - personal attitudes have nothing to do with writing a song.

Never be ashamed to write a melody that people remember.

The most important ingredient to making a song work is the magic. You've got a melody, you've got words, but on the more successful songs, there's a sort of magic glow that just happens and you can feel it happening. It just makes the songs sort of roll out.

After writing quite a few songs now, I have not a method but a way of being patient with a couple of verses or a certain set of chords. I can match them up quicker now than I used to. The one thing you do improve is songwriting.

There was never an 'a-ha' moment when a spider bit me and I knew I could write songs. For that reason, I don't know if I'm always going to be able to. I want to write songs forever, but it's an elusive thing.

Every song has a bouquet, which is the music. If you can put words with something that is really apt, then you've done it.