I write my songs and just play them, so there are not a whole lot of fireworks. As long as the music comes first, it's OK to have some fireworks. But not the other way around.
I'm treating country music like it's a sport. I'm looking at where my competition is and realized I needed to work on my songwriting.
I'm depressed when I don't get to do music. Having to go back to doing something I don't like and am not passionate about would be a tough thing.
All I can do is focus on staying true to the style of music I write and sing because that is the only way it's going to come off as honest.
Coming from New Zealand, all the music I listen to is not made by New Zealanders. People never come to New Zealand to play a show because it's in the middle of nowhere.
Gary Numan had a huge influence on both my music and my style. He had his own unique fashion sense - that futuristic space style. It was out there.
A big part of the Motown formula was, they took music and turned it into this sort of automotive assembly line. They were cranking out 10 songs a day in that studio, or more.
The only thing that I miss lately in all music is somebody that will put out a melody that you can whistle. It doesn't seem like there's anything happening like that.
I enjoy the videos with the sound off, where you can look at the belly buttons and everything. Really some pretty girls, but I don't know about the music.
When you get to readin' about where the music and John Steinbeck and all those people like that come from, the further you go the more interesting it becomes.
I start with the subject matter I want to write about. Then I make a musical base for that and create an atmosphere with the music. Once I've done that, the lyrics come last.
As a teenager I had friends who had little music studios in their bedrooms and garages. I'd go and play around; very soon, my hobby became a passion.
Playing music is a lifetime's work. And if you want to carry on with it, you have to try to better yourself. You have to see where the music can take you.
I want to hear as much music as I possibly can before I leave this mortal coil but it's impossible to hear it all because there's so much of it.
My wife grew up loving country music, so I always run songs by her whether I wrote it or if somebody pitched it to me.
Most artists have contracts directly with the record company, and when they do music, all of their music is owned by the record company. But I did mine through a production company.
You have to be really strong in the music industry, and I'm naturally very timid. That was really hard for me. You have to be tough. You have to make decisions and be a businesswoman.
There are a lot of bands that have a huge appeal, but I don't understand why. Guns n' Roses. U2. But you know, that's just my thing. Music is pretty personal.
One of the things that I think is such a constant in country music is that the song is so much a story. I believe it is supposed to be based around a story.
My favorite moment of the whole thing was when John Belushi suggested that I get a hold of all the blues records I could so I could research the music.
I think that a song, when it works, never mind a piece of long form music, even a song is something that speaks to itself but has a language all of its own, ideally.
