A lot of the lyrics I write involve images that just swing the song in a way that feels really good to me and there isn't a literal explanation. They're not riddles for the listener to solve.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You work very hard on the lyrics. Getting them to fit the contours of improvised melodies.
When I pick up the guitar, it's a melody, and that's what drives the lyrics. It's bits and pieces of truth, but it is storytelling.
Some songs are just like tattoos for your brain... you hear them and they're affixed to you.
I don't like to get too specific about lyrics. It places limitations on them, and spoils the listeners' interpretation.
The songs sort of come out spontaneously and it'll take me awhile to figure out what exactly is happening lyrically, what kind of story I'm telling. Then I start building little bridges - word bridges - to make everything go from one point to the next point to the next point until it reaches the end.
Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don't fit in a very interesting way.
When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it's composition. If you don't understand what it's about, you're depriving yourself of being really able to communicate this poem.
With songs I almost see the images, see the action, and then all I have to do is describe it. It's almost like watching a scene from a film, and that's what I go about trying to catch in a song.
You're just playing, playing, playing, and then an image or something will come into your mind, and basically you're just narrating it with music, letting it move along.
When there are no lyrics, people can picture what they want. It's a reflection of where they are in their lives. Music becomes a mirror.