I mean, I can sit down with a guitar, and in fact, we do two, three songs with just guitar and percussion.
I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively - and there were a lot of choices - writing songs was king.
Sometimes I have thought that a song should look disappointing on the page - a little thin, perhaps, a little repetitive, or a little on the obvious side, or a mixture of all of these things.
As a new artist there's always outside influences trying to tell you how to make a song better for radio and how to do your hair.
Where does a man get inspiration to write a song like that? Well, he gets it from the landlady once a month.
The band set up in January and just started rehearsing. If there was a song, we'd just rehearse it as a band, and it would get arranged as a band, and it got changed around a lot.
Black holes can bang against space-time as mallets on a drum and have a very characteristic song.
It's nice if people ask to use your song. You have to make a decision as an artist how you feel about that.
As a young concert-going person, I was never enamoured with celebrities who would walk out to feature in certain songs and then walk off.
My first attempt at a kiss was in fifth grade, but it didn't go so well. Later, I used Boyz II Men and Jodeci songs to come on to girls. I had more success.
At the time I just was like, I can't believe I am on the show, and the first thing I have to do is an entire song and dance routine for the whole cast of 'Mad Men.'
Carol: Don't you guys have to go kill somebody? John: No, We've always got time for a song!
Lionel Richie, love song, OK, thank you very much, good-bye. And all of a sudden I realized that, in my career, what has made my career has always been the surprises.
Vicki Vale: What can I do for you? The Joker: Oh, little song, little dance. Batman's head on a lance.
Critics used to say that ABBA were formulaic or that our songs were rubbish. We never had time for those comments, though. We were sincere and devoted to what we did.
Most of my inspiration comes from mistakes, so every time I make a massive mistake, that usually affects me so much that I have to process that via song.
In 2007, several musicologists contacted me at about the same time, expressing interest in the work of the mysterious Muriel Herbert, a few of whose songs they had come across.
This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.
I like books that aren't just lovely but that have memories in themselves. Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time.
When I was singing Jamie's Cryin', people were going out of their mind because it was the first time they got to see Eddie, Michael and Alex play those songs. That was a thrill.
Every time the guys were knocked out by my guitar playing and the girls were knocked out by the type of songs I did. That set us apart from the average blues band.
