I'm a great believer in not over-thinking lyrics. You might become technically better as a songwriter, but you lose what originally made your songs great.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I never thought of myself as a songwriter. I was just an artist writing songs, and they just happened to get placed.
There's a lot of craft that goes into achieving a hit song - at the beginning of your career, you're usually more inspiration than craft, and you get great when those intersect. A skilled songwriter can get you to that intersection.
As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm.
Songwriting is something that's very daunting until you have your first successful song, I think.
I get writer's block all the time. The only way I can write what I consider to be good lyrics is to put myself through the mill.
There's certain things as a songwriter that I don't really care to write about, and there are certain things I won't sing about anymore. There are just so many things that I probably thought was OK for me, or have been in the past, that I would never want my son to think was OK.
The joy of songwriting only gets messed up if you are trying to follow up a big success, or you are trying to create a hit single, or if you have conscious thoughts of a particular outcome for the music.
I don't think I'm a good-enough songwriter.
It is setting goals and trying to be a business person, but at the same time not losing sight of who you are writing songs for and what your goals are as a songwriter. So believe me, if you think I've got it down I don't it is a constant struggle.
All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.