Songwriting Quotes - Page 23

• Here's some free advice; like the folkies of yore, you need to be not just a writer of songs, you need to be a lover of songs, a listener of songs and a collector of songs. If you hear a song in a club that knocks you out or you hear an old recording of a great song you never knew existed, it does not diminish you to record it; it actually exalts you because you have brought a great song from obscurity to the ear of the public.

  Michael Kosser

  Song, Writing, Advice

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• That is what diminishes the artist and his song. The artist is now hermetically sealed. The publishing company got him his deal and they expect to profit from his songs. So what if he is a better singer than a songwriter; let's put him in a room with a real songwriter. Something great is bound to come...except very often nothing great comes out of such contrived match-ups. Nobody knows where a great song comes from, and that's why so many writers credit the Lord as a co-writer (though I notice they never offer Him half the writer's royalties) when they come up with a real gem.

  Michael Kosser

  Song, Real, Writing

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• Those are the magical songwriting moments, when you have a partner that clicks like that. That's a dream come true, man.

  Sammy Hagar

  Dream, Men, Clicks

  Interview with Steven Hyden, www.avclub.com. April 5, 2011.

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• I entered a songwriting competition, I didn't win, and one of the judges on the panel was an A&R man at a record label that had no other acts and I signed to them. We sent my demo out to five people and David Kahne got back to me that day, and said I think you're amazing I want to start with you tomorrow. He was like my Harvard reach school, I couldn't believe it. I was really excited. It was the first time anyone of any importance said I was good and I ran with that validation for a long time.

  Lana Del Rey

  Believe, School, Thinking

  "Ice Breaker: Lana Del Rey". Interview with Sean Fennessey, www.gq.com. October 6, 2011.

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• I draw the line at letting people into my songwriting cave. To me, that's where the alchemy happens and where the mystery is.

  Amanda Palmer

  People, Caves, Lines

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I'm the only girl songwriter that fights for a lot of things. I fight for songwriting fees, which record labels want you to shut up about.

  Ester Dean

  Girl, Fighting, Labels

  "Hitmaker Ester Dean on Songwriting, Fighting and Eating Hot Dogs (Q&A)". Interview with Rebecca Ford, www.hollywoodreporter.com. February 6, 2013.

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• I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting.

  Carrie Underwood

  Country, Talent, Music Is

  Source: articles.chicagotribune.com

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• To me songwriting is more like redemption. I can extract the poison or the pollen, the essence from a situation and the rest becomes a husk that blows away.

  Beth Orton

  Blow, Essence, Poison

  Interview with Hector de la Manzana, believermag.com. March 1, 2003.

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• When I started making music, I made music in a very commercial space and I didn't have room to really explore things on my own terms. It took me awhile to create a little bubble where I could explore other things, and new things. When I did that, my tools were songwriting and arranging.

  Robyn

  Space, Tools, Littles

  "Robyn and Röyksopp: 'We Have Been Slightly Ahead of Our Time'". Interview with Nolan Feeney and Sam Lansky, time.com. August 20, 2014.

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• I've always used songwriting as a way to help me organise reality.

  Jason Mraz

  Reality, Way, Helping

  Source: www.student-weekly.com

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• Sometimes touring can warp reality because you're never in one place long enough to get a feel for it. You don't interact with people long enough to know what real life is. That's why a lot of artists write songs about longing and missing people when they're on the road. I do my best to keep my mind open and I read a lot when I'm on tour, so I hope I have good things to write about. I'm constantly in the songwriting process.

  Jason Mraz

  Song, Real, Writing

  Source: www.student-weekly.com

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• I never wrote poetry, just prose. I don't really consider songwriting a form of poetry either. The words are important, of course, but they're dependent on the music.

  Michael Gira

  Important, Form, Prose

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I think I'm more prolific in the songwriting.

  Ringo Starr

  Thinking

  Source: alltheseletters.com

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• Country music was the music I was brought up on. It's the music that's closest to my heart and the music that speaks to me the most, and it's always been a big influence on my own songwriting.

  Teddy Thompson

  Country, Heart, Influence

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• I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively... writing songs was king.

  Jakob Dylan

  Song, Kings, Writing

  Interview with Brian Koppelman, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 26, 2008.

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• It's very professionally done, very clever songwriting. I like Backstreet Boys more than 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, it's all very well done stuff. Much better than the Partridge Family and New Kids On The Block. I took my kids to see Backstreet Boys live and they flipped out

  Gene Simmons

  Clever, Block, Kids

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• I see songwriting as having to do with experience, and the more you've experienced, the better it is. But it has to be tempered, and you just must let your imagination run.

  Mick Jagger

  Running, Imagination

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• I think most of the work of songwriting is thinking of great phrases - I'm addicted, always on the hunt for a really great phrase.

  Ezra Furman

  Thinking, Phrases, Really Great

  "Playground for the Perplexed". Interview with J.L. Sirisuk, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 5, 2015.

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• One thing that I'm really interested in is the kind of esoteric detail that surrounds these great figures. And Wikipedia is full of that kind of stuff, whether it's true or untrue. It staggers me: why, in the short space assigned to a person or an event, that kind of random information is there. To be honest, that's wonderful fuel for songwriting.

  Nick Cave

  Space, Wikipedia, Events

  "Nick Cave on the Evolution of His Music". Interview with Simon Abrams, www.esquire.com. January 28, 2014.

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• I've always loved songwriting, and I vowed to be a songwriter like Cole Porter when I was only 9 years old.

  Mel Brooks

  Years, Songwriters

  Billboard Interview, www.billboard.com. December 8, 2005.

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• When I was 15, all I knew was that I had to be somebody and that I could be somebody. So I exploited the only thing I knew, which was singing and songwriting.

  Juan Gabriel

  Singing

  Source: articles.latimes.com

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• I'm not inspired by songwriting at all; that took place years ago. I'm pretty well established, as far as my influences go. I don't listen to music anymore. It all sounds the same to me.

  Mose Allison

  Years, Sound, Inspired

  Interview with Jason Heller, music.avclub.com. April 02, 2010.

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• I could speak Spanish fluently growing up, but I'm so out of practice, and I have such a tremendous respect for songwriting in the Spanish language.

  Miguel

  Growing Up, Practice, Language

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• Politics is a part of life and art is about life. It doesn't mean that all the art has to be about politics - in fact, heaven forbid. But politics is a totally legitimate area of focus for any art, whether it's painting or songwriting or anything else, as much as sex is, as much as spirituality is, as much as any other behavior of people is.

  Bruce Cockburn

  Art, Sex, Mean

  Source: progressive.org

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• I'm getting bored performing the same songs over and over. Songwriting comes and goes.

  Sharon Van Etten

  Song, Bored, Performing

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