It feels much more natural to move forward and grow with the instruments I’ve grown accustomed to. Piano, accordion, brass, ukulele. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
My thought with harmonies and melodies in general, is that if it doesn’t come right away then it’s never going to come at all. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I released that side of things really as kind of an introduction to where I came from musically, back in the day when all I had was a keyboard, a drum machine, and a four-track. So I was doing these little synth-pop ditties, and it’s how I learned to write. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I like to think that location, travel, etc, is a launching point for purely imagining. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
You can never not feel like that, as a working artist these days. It’s funny – time off makes me nervous, but so does time on. At least the pressure wasn’t coming from outside. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I have tried to write soundtracks, and the main problem with those was that the directors often had in their minds a much stronger sense of what they wanted to hear, than what I was willing to give them, and I guess there was no way to say, “Well why don’t you write your scene around my music?” Because that’s just cocky and awful. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
When I came back to America, I realized that world music is no joke, it really has a lot to it. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I’m writing songs about New York. A lot of them carry the names of neighborhoods in Long Island. Maspeth, Montauk. I’m getting into the idea of a F. Scott Fitzgerald-esque Long Island back when New York was…New York. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I’m not an amazing trumpet player. It’s mostly smoke and mirrors. You shake the trumpet and it starts to vibrate in a ridiculous drunken way, or you flop notes at the right time and you don’t have to play stuff that would take seven years to learn. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I can’t work in Brooklyn. Unless I’m completely locked away in a studio, there’s just too much distraction and stimulation. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I just reached the point where I realised, I need to stop repeating myself if I’m ever actually going to enjoy the music I’m creating. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I think that within the world of music that we work in, which is so not perfect, I think that you really do have to learn to accept your own mistakes as part of the beauty of music itself. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
It’s a little cheeky; growing up in Santa Fe was kind of a weird experience, because it’s such a touristy town. So sometimes it feels a little like you’re in a town that’s just on display. You walk around downtown and all the shops are galleries or high end boutiques, so it can feel like you don’t belong there even though you are from there. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I didn’t realize how different our band’s senses of melody actually were. I would write a part that just made perfect sense to me, but for them, it was mind-boggling. Likewise, they could play stuff with relative ease that I never could have. If there was something lost in translation melodically, it wouldn’t work at all – we’d just be 17 people in a giant room staring awkwardly at each other. When that happened, I’d go home, figure out what was wrong, fix it, and then return to smooth sailing. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
Often when I find myself listening to music, at least 60 to 70% of it is foreign, so I don’t understand a word of it. Melody to me will always be a million times more important than words. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
As much as I try to grow as a lyricist, I tend to laugh at even calling myself that, because I think that my actual talents lie more in arrangements than they do words. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
In the age of the mp3, you gotta make the package special, something that’s worth owning. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
The way Jacques Brel writes a story, getting into the character, bringing out all his faults and qualities in the same song…. Not that I could ever write in such an epic way, but it really is a different way to go about writing lyrics…and I find that quite inspiring. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
I write one step at a time, always finishing off the part I’m working on before even thinking about the next part. I need to hear it all together before deciding what goes next. I even mix before moving on…in other words, I write by recording. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix
What was pretty crazy was to plan a wedding around a tour. It felt very getting-hitched-in-Vegas style. It was like, we played a show in Salt Lake City, ran to New Mexico, we got married, and then I was off to Lisbon. Help us to share this great article. Your friends will appreciate it! 0shares Facebook0 Twitter0 Pinterest0 LinkedIn0 Flipboard Tumblr0 Mix