Words matter. These are the best Songwriters Quotes from famous people such as Kevin Jonas, Isaac Hanson, Johnny Rivers, Synyster Gates, Kara DioGuardi, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Travis Barker is one of the greatest drummers ever, and all the guys in blink are really good songwriters.
We felt like, first and foremost, we were songwriters.
Alan’s publishing company was in the Brill Building, and of course, the Brill Building was where all the songwriters hung out because that’s where all the publishers were.
Breaking Benjamin, they’re such incredible songwriters.
I’ve never in my life bought a big piece of jewelry – like, ‘I’m gonna get myself a big piece of jewelry!’ Songwriters’ lives are unstable and up and down. Even though mine has sort of has followed more of a going toward the sky trajectory.
I’m not the only one who has ever lost somebody; I’m not the only one who was missing somebody. That’s what I love about country music, that’s what I love about songwriters, is being able to put out those words, those feelings.
One not-to-be-mentioned major said they would sign me if I worked with a team of songwriters to help me finish songs, ha! Of course, in hindsight, I should’ve done it just to see what that would have been like.
One of my favorite songs is ‘Ghost’ by Indigo Girls. Emily Saliers wrote that, and she is one of the most talented songwriters ever.
As songwriters, we are lucky to have ASCAP on our side, offering support and fighting for our rights.
I’ve had offers to sign a record deal, but the people I’ve talked to have wanted to package me and have me meet with songwriters who’ve written stuff for Whitney Houston, that sort of thing. That’s not at all my style.
I had all these singles come out within a two-month period, and then nothing for almost two years. You start to feel a little irrelevant. You realize how many people there are trying to be songwriters and how competitive it is and how political things can be.
I got behind that pencil and nothing happened for many years, but since they put me in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, I’ve turned around. I took a good look at myself and said, I think it’s time to get back at work.
I feel like, genre-wise, the walls are coming down in Nashville. There are so many writers who have moved to town from all walks of life. There’s this immense respect for country, but there are pop songwriters, R&B. Nashville has become sort of this go-to writing city for every genre.
Growing up, I’d never heard of any female producers or songwriters. I didn’t know you could be a girl and produce, which is terrible.
Songwriters tell the truth.
The Songwriters Hall of fame, that’s the one all the big-time writers get into, the really great stuff, the Broadway stuff and all that. That would be something, to get your name in there.
Chuck Berry invented rock ‘n’ roll. He was one of the best songwriters of the 20th century.
I can speak for most songwriters – those breakup love songs are so easy to write, as far as the inspiration and all that.
It’s been really cool to me to watch someone like Sam Hunt, whose lyrics and roots are in country but you can hear that he listens to Drake and Justin Timberlake – and that’s OK. It allows songwriters to be more honest because it’s like, ‘This is who I’m listening to.’
I wish I wrote songs like Donald Fagen, Walter Becker, Don Henley, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, so many of the songwriters I admire. They have the ability to say things.
I’ve studied several guitar players and songwriters, mostly from Al di Meola to Dimebag Darrell, from Freddie Mercury of Queen to Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Bradley Nowell of Sublime.
What should a song be about? It’s a trick question for songwriters because lots of amazing songs aren’t ‘about’ anything. Or, at least, they’re not about anything that’s obvious or logical.
Most of my friends in Nashville – almost all of them – seem to have had hits in the ’70s, either as artists or songwriters or producers.
That’s what we get to do as songwriters, right? You get to explore stuff.
I’m good at melody – I’ll write the top-line melody and ideal words I want to go with it. But I’m not that good at writing lyrics. I bounce those back and forth with songwriters or someone who can sing.
Maybe, whatever influence we have, other songwriters or women or whatever can feel like they can have a place too, I guess. Or that they don’t have to do things the way that we’ve been taught we have to do them.
I’m always looking for great songs, and not being much of a songwriter, I depend on great songwriters to send them to me. I go through tons of stuff, and sometimes you just find material that kind of fits and becomes something special.
I’m really happy that I got to work with such fresh talent. In a day when record companies are not particularly good at encouraging young, talented songwriters to come forward and get exposure, I think it’s important to give tomorrow’s songwriters the opportunity.
Writing in English was a major challenge. I didn’t want other songwriters to write for me. I wanted to preserve the spirit of my songs in Spanish. I am the same Shakira in English as I am in Spanish.
Babyface is one of the top songwriters in the world ever, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have worked with everybody that I grew up listening to.
I know great songwriters. Fred Neil would come up when he was in L.A., we all used to hang out. He would sit there and sing, and we would just melt. I mean, we would go to his recording sessions.
You know, there’s still a lot of great songwriters out there who hand in songs. And there’s a lot of brilliant singers and performers out there who sing other people’s words. I enjoy doing both.
Most of the best songwriters that ever lived couldn’t read music.
I love music and songwriters from the ’60s and ’70s.
Lennon and McCartney became great songwriters because they were prepared to listen to and learn from all types of music.
One thing we have to remember as songwriters is that we have to consider that country music is the country’s music. That doesn’t mean that everybody’s rural.
I can only say thank you and thanks also to all of the great songwriters who wrote those wonderful songs that became number ones.
I can do anything onstage. Here’s the misconception: You could record an album called ‘The Best of Styx.’ And all you would have to do is pay the individual songwriters a mechanical royalty.
Traditionally, songwriters can’t sing. And that holds true in my case, also.
There’s a lot for screenwriters to steal from songwriters, in terms of getting to the point.
There are so many songwriters that people don’t know about. There’s so many producers that people don’t know about.
I find so many songwriters today are missing an element… either the production is amazing but the songs aren’t, or it’s the other way around.
Sometimes songwriters and singers forget that. They get a melody in their head and the notes will take precedence, so that they wind up forcing a word onto a melody. It doesn’t ring true.
Hanson is not the pop band that a lot of people think we are. I think we’re a lot more rooted in a lot of music history… we’re songwriters, we’re singers, we’re players first. We’re not entertainers, we’re not celebrities, and frankly, we don’t really want to be.
I love being part of the ASCAP family of songwriters and composers.
Songwriters, you have to work – you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song’s going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.
My uncle Lionel ended up being a bug guy at 20th Century Fox, which my father had been – and, of course, my cousin Randy – you know, one of the great American songwriters. It was a storied family and, in many ways, very tough to emerge from.
Songwriters, we’re always looking for new concepts, fresh concepts, and there are only so many ways you can talk about partying, really.
I’m basically a songwriter, man. Songwriters are down in the fine print, you know? And I really enjoy that.
When I started out, I was definitely writing about experiences that I hadn’t had yet. The songs were just based on my influences, songwriters that had written songs before me and that were more experienced and 20, 30 years older than me.
The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops. That includes the Irving Berlins and the Hoagy Carmichaels, the Harold Arlens, Cole Porter.
As songwriters, we can go in and write for other artists in a time where you aren’t necessarily feeling inspired for yourself.
Before the Beatles, songwriters were very anonymous people and nobody paid any attention to them.
The more you read, the better you are at writing, no matter what you’re writing. A lot of songwriters miss that and don’t see the connection there, and I’ve always felt like you’re more able to communicate if you have a bigger toolbox to work with.
Randy Newman and I grew up together in Los Angeles. We are both products of the film studio era. Randy is one of the great songwriters of our time and one of the fun people to be with.
Songwriters such as Alanis Morissette write about the constant balance of contradictions, and that’s something I adhere to in my life and work.
Obviously we’re pop songwriters.