I'm more of a songwriter. I love writing songs. I love writing my songs. It's always been writing for me, and it makes it different when you're writing for yourself.
It's really such a personal journey, making a record, but even more so writing the songs.
I said, other people can write songs, let's see if I can. So the first 400 or 500 wound up on the floor somewhere. Then I wrote one called Melissa.
When you sit down and write a song, you kind of have the idea for the song, and you sit there at the piano and you kinda just write it. And then of course later there's some dinking around with it and changing some stuff.
Heartbreak can definitely give you a deeper sensibility for writing songs. I drew on a lot of heartbreak when I was writing my first album, I didn't mean to but I just did.
I love making records; I love making music; I love writing songs.
If I give myself a chore, for instance, when I was writing the songs for Shameless, I said to myself, Now, every day for 90 days you have to write a song; good, bad or indifferent. So that was really helpful.
I'd like to be writing songs for other people - I just like writing songs.
I was in a band at school, and almost from the day we started, I started writing songs, just because that seemed what you did.
I love to sing, and I've recorded a few covers and originals with friends, but I haven't written any songs.
The first song that I wrote was when I was with The Del Rios. I was like 14 years old but I was always putting my thoughts down on paper even before then because it was like an escape - a way of unleashing all the stuff.
I don't write songs, songs write me.
You just don't wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.
If you're going to write a song, try to get together with a collaborator because it's better to write with collaborators.
I intend to keep writing Christmas songs. There's still a lot more about Christmas that can be captured and feel like old-time Christmas. A lot of the traditions haven't been explained in song.
I put a song out for fun, from 'Lucky Them'... I wrote another one called 'Love Song.' I really liked that.
My inspiration for songs is just everyday life. I just write down words about things that have happened to me, people I've met.
Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed.
I tend to have a lot of songs ready for each record I do anyway. I always have. I was thinking, the more you write, the better chance you're going to come up with a collection of stuff that is going to work together.
Things like guitars and ukuleles, you should never part with it, because there will probably be good, healthy times spent, just playing and writing.
Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to tell stories, but I never had the patience to sit down at a typewriter and write short stories or anything like that. I started writing songs as a way of communicating ideas the best way I could.
I like the process of writing songs. It makes me feel good.
I basically make my living writing songs, so I've been able to go around in my trailer. If I got tired of a place, I could move on and roam around. It's a nice environment for writing songs, as opposed to sitting at a recording studio console all day.
I remember those days right after I graduated from college. All I had to do was wake up in the morning and think about writing songs. It's not like that anymore, needless to say.
I started writing songs when I was eight.
