I'm a mad thinker in general. I think about everything, all the time. Especially when I write music, a lot of the influences come from personal experiences or from being on the outside looking in, being that person who witnessed things that stuck with me throughout my life.
I just love the days when you come out of the archives with half a dozen excellent descriptions or poignant accounts of personal experiences.
My grandfather was in World War II and fought in Europe in Army Infantry, so I have such a huge respect for him, and he's shared some personal experiences with me.
I am always so excited to get to know a new audience. My concerts are very personal experiences.
Everything can be grist for the muse. Sometimes, writers draw on personal experiences. 'Ghoul' was just that.
'Ghoul' was what my world looked like, growing up in the late Seventies and early Eighties, and what I thought it looked like. A lot of my personal experiences went into it.
'If Our Love Is Wrong' is, quite simply, my coming out song, as I was trying to wrap my head around my sexuality and was starting to learn about songwriting, and that my honesty and my authenticity came from my personal experiences and writing about stuff that genuinely bugged me or upset me.
I'm still writing from personal experiences, which is what people connected with in the first place.
You know, the point of a novel - or to me, the point of a novel, the gift of a novel is to go really deeply inside people's lives and inside their personal experiences.
I think when you're writing songs, it's impossible to not draw on personal experiences, whether it be traveling or girls or anything. Just emotions.
