I remember those days right after I graduated from college. All I had to do was wake up in the morning and think about writing songs. It's not like that anymore, needless to say.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
At school, I was always daydreaming and fiddling in inkwells, but I had to learn to grow up and become articulate. And doing that was what brought me into writing songs. It's like therapy for me, because it exposes what I'm really thinking.
Still, to this day I go back and listen to music that inspires me to write now.
I think I turned to writing really just to wake up in the morning and be a musician and to have something to do, and feel like a musician every day even if I wasn't working.
I have a terrible memory in general, but one thing I've always been able to remember is my songs.
I was in a band at school, and almost from the day we started, I started writing songs, just because that seemed what you did.
When I was younger I was obsessed with writing, so even if I wanted to listen, I didn't have time.
Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning, you throw on your suspenders, and you subvocalize and just think. They seem to form like calcium. I can't think of a story right off the bat that was that interesting. I write things on the back of my hand, usually, and sing into a tape recorder.
When I turned 14, I became very obsessed with writing songs, and it took over my existence.
I didn't really start writing music or lyrics or turning them into songs until I went to San Francisco.
I remember when I was in my late teens just getting rid of lots of records, realizing I only ever listened to them when I was reading, or watching TV, or doing something else.