I don't really know that there's any real rules for songwriting.
Songwriting isn't always something that's directly proportionate to the experience.
But if you want to be a songwriter-based musician, whether you play punk or rock or country or jazz, whatever, you have to work on your songwriting and you have to work on being able to play in front of people, I think. That performance is how you create the groundwork for a lasting career.
Coming out of 'Wretched and Divine,' I was still wanting to explore the more theatrical elements of songwriting. That led to Andy Black.
Where I've arrived now is the product of mixing the very straight with the very exploratory; there's a fine line between the two, although it tends to be getting straighter and straighter because my songwriting is getting better.
You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.
The personality and songwriting of Holy Ghost! trumps the originality card any day.
I feel like, throughout 'True Romance,' I was unsure of myself in terms of songwriting. Even though it was my voice, I feel there were a lot of other voices on that record, too.
The '80s, no matter what kind of wacky fashion or whatever else that went on in the '80s, the songs that came out of it, there was really great songwriting, in my opinion.
There's this existential argument that comes in, at some point, when you're over-thinking the songwriting process. There's no guarantee that the more time you spend or the more you concentrate on certain aspects that that's going to produce a better result, especially in the arts.
