You know, Simon he's an artist representative, but Randy and Paula actually were in the industry as artists so they had, you know, the information that they offered to us from their aspect.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
All of them had so much to offer us as far as, you know, knowledge in the music industry, and especially Randy and Paula because, you know, they've been artists.
Randy said I could call him for anything, Paula said that she loved me and said how much of a star I was. Simon was like, keep up the good work and I'll have nothing to worry about.
Really the only thing holding a lot of records together is the personality of the singer, and the will to write all of these different things.
I look up to Tegan & Sara, obviously, Adele and Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks. All these artists are strong in their convictions, and they haven't changed who they are for the music business.
If you get an opportunity to work with David Simon, anybody with good taste would.
With new artists, you really don't have anything to reference. You're helping to develop their sound, define who they are vocally.
I have total respect for the self-contained rock artist. Whether you're dealing with Jerry Garcia or Lou Reed or Patti Smith or a Whitney or an Aretha, they know what they want with their career.
Guys like Otis Blackwell and Bobby Darin, and all the guys who were writing songs for Elvis at the time, just hanging around, writing songs, talking about music.
I'm definitely a singer-songwriter. I'm somewhere in the vein between Elliott Smith and Jack Johnson.
I never considered myself a songwriter, but now since I've been working with Nick Lowe, I am contributing to an extent. But I'm the guitarist and he's not, so we compliment each other in a way.