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on the bottom E, so I've always got an E and B drone, whatever chord I do. That's all I do. I've limited myself
massively, so the whole thing has become incredibly simple. (1991)
Eric Clapton
It's important for records to be as good as you can make them, you know? When I've written songs and made them
into demos – for instance, on the August album I had one demo that we did clean up and polish a lot.
Mark Knopfler
Different keys on the guitar suggest different moods. I can't get any height on my voice, so I tend to choose keys that
might not suit the song but happen to suit my non-existent range. Sometimes you pick the wrong key when you're
recording – 'Why Worry' was recorded in E and you can hear it's in the wrong key. I'm straining to sing it, and I
think on the last tour we changed it to D.
Morrissey
My lyrics are only obscure to the extent that they are not taken directly from the dictionary of writing songs. They
are not slavish to the lyrical rulebook, so you'll never catch me singing, "Oh baby, baby, yeah." My only priority is
to use lines and words in a way that hasn't been heard before. (1983)
Tori Amos
The songs just hang out, you know, they come in and move in. To me the songs already exist, I'm just an interpreter
for them. Yes, because of my experiences they're going to come through my filter, and that's going to change how I
see them. But they already exist in a certain form, and I'm just trying to take them to the third dimension – maybe the
fourth, really, because I'd like to think my work taps into the fourth dimension, not just three dimensions.
I'm always trying to push the boundaries of form, but I don't anaylze it when I'm writing. (1996)
Marc Bolan
I play about for a couple of hours before I move into new dimensions where I'm being very creative. I record
everything then. (1971)
I've suddenly tuned into that mental channel that makes a record a hit, and I feel at present as though I could write
Number Ones for ever. Let's face it, the majority of pop hits that make it are a permutation on the 12-bar blues, and
I've found one that works. (1970)
Matt Johnson (The The)
I think if a song sounds good on just an acoustic guitar, then it is good. That's a song as opposed to a track. A lot of
modern records are just tracks, and if you take away the production then they cease to exist. (1993)
Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze)
People often point out that some of our best-known stuff is musically quite tricky, it revolves around a lot of chord
changes, but that was actually something I was striving to stop doing. I wasn't really conscious of doing it until other
people mentioned it. I personally don't like songs that are too tricky, but it all depends on how it grabs you. The acid
test for me is not whether it's tricky or not, it's whether it works when you play it on its own, just guitar or
keyboards. I know that's an old chestnut, but it's true.