It's interesting to do other people's music - that's how I learned to play, by learning other people's songs. It's nice to delve into how other people got to where they are.
I don't write songs about a specific, elusive thing. I write about love, and everyone knows what it is like to have your heart broken.
Hall & Oates is one of the few musical groups as satisfying now as it was back then. There's something incredibly musically satisfying about their songs. Nothing has diminished my love for them.
Singing songs like 'The Man I Love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.
I'm really a singer, so I love songs and I love singing. I like rap music, but I didn't grow up freestyling.
I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It's not super-poetic, it's just from the heart.
I've always been a fan of country music. It's America's music - I love the songs, love the lyrics.
I love songs because by nature they are concise; they sum up. I try to use as few words as possible. It's usually funnier that way, anyway.
The most personal track would have to be 'Love The Way We Used To.' It's one of the songs that I listen to outside of all the records that I wrote.
The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement.
I'm just writing songs about how I feel or about how people I know feel.
I also just accept that I might never want to write a song again.
I'm still proud of what I've done, even if it hasn't been the biggest song on the radio or hasn't gone to number one.
Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke. Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?
What kind of songs do you like? she asked. "The ones that remind me of you," I said.
So many songs are just a wink to the audience, but people take them seriously. 'My Humps?' C'mon!
The first song I did was over a Chief Keef beat - 'Understand Me.' I did that in, like, 2011 or 2012, I think.
I could tell it was a popular move as a writer to walk down the bass lines while you were writing a song.
Elvis Costello's song writing is so peerless and individualistic. It's storytelling and it's deeply intelligent and clever.
I never set out to write a certain kind of song, I just play my guitar and see if I catch something.
I honestly think that with every song you release you have to keep winning your own fans over again.
