I feel like there's no subject that can't be sung about. I wrote a song dedicated to people with inflammatory bowel disease, and then I wrote about shoes. And mangoes. Every rock should be turned.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There are people who can sit down and write a song about any given subject, and they can do it really, really well.
It's weird, because the ideas in my songs aren't controversial to me. I feel like I should be able to sing about anything.
I don't just want to sing about simplistic things all the time. It's good to have a mix of songs that have a real depth, and that provoke and challenge people, and then songs that are fun and people can enjoy.
I just try to write songs that people are going to have a dialogue about.
When I think of folk music, I think of topical songs. And I don't write topical songs.
If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song.
If you sing beautifully about nothing, no one will listen. If you sing badly about great stuff, no one will listen. Ideas are everywhere, but my theory is that a writer doesn't just think of an idea: they perform them.
Writing songs is really about writing. It's not about necessarily focusing on one particular style or making it one particular thing.
I could write songs about politics, but I'm conscious of not writing songs that sound the same as the ones I wrote 30 years ago.
I try to write life and not songs. People live life, and when you write life, you're going to mess around and touch somebody's heart, and they'll relate to you and what you're singing about.