There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control.
Songwriting is kind of like a craft. It's not something that just comes in a dream. You've got to work at it.
I probably wouldn't be a songwriter if I didn't grow up the way I did. It was difficult and it was at times very scary to grow up in a household so unsettled and at times very violent. But, it also, I guess it earned me a sort of wisdom at a young age that's served me well.
You can't write about stuff you don't know about. You have to live it. You have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Live life to be a good songwriter.
Songwriting is hard - it's so easy to fall into the same traps. It's not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.
Songwriting is too mysterious and uncontrolled a process for me to direct it towards any one thing.
I don't try to write songs that will further my career. I write about things that I care about. I don't have a career as much as I'm having an adventure with a guitar. I never liked the business way of doing it. You have to follow some sort of instinct.
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 think songwriting is the ultimate form of being able to make anything that happens in your life productive.
Songwriting is like a therapy, it's a connection that you have with another person, and I'm not scared of it at all for some reason.