I’ll sit around and play my guitar; that’s how I write tunes.
I got on a bit of a rollercoaster looking into how Herbie Hancock used to make his tunes, and I remember a picture of Jean-Michel Jarre at one of his concerts and seeing the Memorymoog. When I heard the sound it I was like, ‘Arrrgh, I really need that.’
Anybody who tunes into Rush Limabaugh already knows what he’s going to say and is already inclined to agree. So it winds up creating tribes.
I’m not really a country singer, although I did make a couple albums and love its simple, straight-from-the-heart approach, but I have always sung a lot of jazz, show tunes, pop tunes, gospel and blues.
‘Looney Tunes’ was not a children’s cartoon. I don’t care what anybody says. It was very politically charged, very racial. And then they tried to soften it up for kids later. But it was for the adults.
Kids love Lady Gaga because she’s a freak, and she’s one of the few people doing that, but unfortunately, Lady Gaga hasn’t got the tunes. She’s not David Bowie or Roxy Music.
I don’t really watch a lot of TV, but I do watch ‘Adventure Time’, ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’, and ‘Looney Tunes’ and old classic cartoons.
Most people remember me for a couple of tunes.
Back in the ’90s, we saw prominent non-film artists like the Bombay Vikings do a splendid job on old classics and people danced to those new tunes without ever feeling that the song had been spoiled. We slowly saw this trend creeping into mainstream cinema.
When you think about a post-swim snack at the local pool, you’d be forgiven for thinking ham and cheese toasties, finger buns and red frogs before cassava fries, arepas and Latin tunes.
Oddly enough, I almost never listen to show tunes. But there are some shows I love, like Adam Guettel’s ‘Floyd Collins.’
I was on tour with Little Dragon with the Gorillaz. She’s got an amazing voice and is a lovely girl. Her vibe is fresh pressed and harmless fun with a tinge of the dark side if you look in the right bits of the tunes.
I did a lot of musical theater when I was younger, and I really hope to get back there someday. I miss singing a lot. I listen to Broadway show tunes in my car and sing along to them.
For a songwriter, you don’t really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they’re made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.
I was taught to whistle as a little girl by an undertaker. I used to sit in his workshop, watching him planing wood for the coffins, and he used to whistle all the time – and eventually I started whistling, too. I can whistle anything, particularly trumpet tunes from Classic FM.
I suppose, counting back, if the Beatles had been influenced by music in the same length of time ago – you’d have to put that into better English for me, thank you – they would have been like a banjo orchestra. They would have been doing show tunes.
Yeah I do and I don’t mind, in fact that is one of the real encouraging things about this whole career of mine is that there are tunes I wrote almost thirty years ago that I will still play in front of an audience and I still like the old tunes.
I just couldn’t get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes.
I’ve heard some tunes in recent years that were pretty close to that same idea. The idea was you turn on the radio and you want to hear some music and up comes a commercial.
As a kid, I would listen to anything that had a live orchestra or ensemble playing, so that covered everything from show tunes to eclectic jazz things to film soundtracks to classical music. They’re all inspiring to me.
Who doesn’t like to play Black Sabbath tunes!
I don’t really have a favorite pop artist – I just listen to some pop songs here and there. Mostly, though, it’s Beyonce and show tunes.
Look, I was only given a year or two to come up with tunes for this record, and when all but eight of them were thrown out for riotous behaviour, I got a bit ticked off; wouldn’t you?
It’s important to have good tunes, but words are the thing for me.
I have been tied up with music for about as long as I can remember. By the time I was four I was picking out little tunes my mother played on the reed organ in the living-room.
I used to sneak gospel tunes into my old records, just as kind of a personal thing.
I’ve done a couple of tunes with Kaytranada. ‘Got It Good’ has had such a great response.
There are a lot of mindless moments in my tunes.
I think it was John who really urged me to play sitar on ‘Norwegian Wood,’ which was the first time we used it. Now, Paul has just asked me recently whether I’d written any more of those ‘Indian type of tunes.’ He suddenly likes them now. But at the time, he wouldn’t play on them.
In 1970, my label decided I should do a Christmas album and I put a bunch of tunes together. We couldn’t decide what to call it and so I said ‘Why not just say Merry Christmas in Spanish? Feliz Navidad.’ They said, ‘That’s cool, Jose, but we need a title song.’ So I just sat down and started to play.
I didn’t really think my music was good enough to be heard by anyone. I had some friends who were releasing records who were older than me, and within that group, I was always the younger, patronized friend who was making tunes as well, which everyone thought was cute.
When I’d hear something that sounded like I could follow it – most of those big band jazz tunes are blues anyway – I would hum it and play with the fiddle while I was humming.
I have a weekly playlist on Spotify called Mixtape Mondays. So every Sunday night, I sit around listening to tunes to place. It’s becoming my favorite part of the week.
When talking about writing, I often use the analogy of archaeology. There are these great tunes all around. Your skill as a musician allows you to pick them out without breaking them.
I am so happy that every generation still tunes into most of the classic and cult films I was lucky to be a part of.
The tunes, rhythms, and messages are drawn mainly from secular culture.
I enjoy doing new tunes. It gives me a little bit to perk up, to pay a little bit more attention.
All forms are complex once you get to a really high level, and jazz and hip-hop are so connected. In hip-hop, you sample, while in jazz, you take Broadway tunes and turn them into something different. They’re both forms that repurpose other forms of music.
I think a lot of tunes can suffer from being so simple, so either they get over-complicated or their simplicity means the simple way to lay them down becomes the difficulty.
I started posting initially because I just wanted to get my voice heard. I sang cover versions of show tunes and got such nice feedback that I began singing songs I had written.
I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people’s tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known.
We’re not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.
My biggest tunes – ‘Eres Mia,’ ‘Llevame Contigo,’ ‘Propuesta Indecente’ – they aren’t featuring anyone but me.
I play a little guitar, write a few tunes, make a few movies, but none of that’s really me. The real me is something else.
Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.
One night last summer, all the killers in my head assembled on a stage in Massachusetts to sing show tunes.
Over at the Olivia Pope & Associates set, we’re like middle school children. Every time there’s a cut in the action, we joke and dance around; there’s show tunes and fart noises.
My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!
The Indian audience is so passionate, they know all the tunes and love to party. The atmosphere is always electric.
I think every band is a little cautious when the drummer starts to write tunes.
As a composer, I only give directors tunes I’m happy with.
The Woody Guthrie ‘Dust Bowl’ tunes were really fascinating.
When I auditioned for the show, I didn’t realize it was an MTV production, which is going to make for really good tunes during the episodes, if nothing else.
I used to sing Chaka Khan tunes in the car with my mum when I was eight years old.
I kept being asked by corporations to do corporate gigs. And I said, ‘I don’t have anything. I’m not a stand-up. You want me to come sing show tunes for you? I don’t think so.’
It’s nice to create something you believe in. It’s even nicer to dance to your own tunes sometimes.
People have to realise you don’t help African children singing along to 60-year-old men playing their tunes from 40 years ago.
When you work in such a surreal environment as movies, just listening to some tunes or hanging out with friends is what you crave. Even time alone.
Sometimes, I record rough patches of tunes and take them to directors. They choose to retain my voice. Personally, I don’t like my voice, and never want to record.
I’ve started a little independent record label called ‘Six String Productions’ and recorded a couple of tunes, and I hope to do some more with some future artists next year. It’s a real passion project of mine.
