Jakob Dylan on Songwriting

The May 2005 issue of Performing Songwriter has a great interview with Jakob Dylan. I found some inspiring quotes in it--in fact, after reading it, I sat down at the piano and finished two songs. (Just goes to show, reading trashy/beauty magazines just leaves me empty, whereas reading music magazines fills me with ideas. That's hard to remember when there is so much celebrity this-and-that all around us these days.)

On being a late bloomer:
"... I thought I was kind of a late bloomer because everybody has to realize that that first batch is probably going to be terrible. First of all, it's better to have 10 bad songs than no songs. And secondly, you're probably not going to stumble on your first great one until you get those other ones under your belt. You're going to have to keep carving away and learning."

On songs that last:
"... great artists and great bands transcended their scenes and their cliques. It's not enough to have the great image and the fresh sound. You have to have a song that transcends your influences and takes you to a place where you can last."

On interpreting lyrics:
"I love the mystery of songwriting, and I think that mystery should be in every song to some degree. ... I never worry about, or get caught up in, what did the songwriter mean, or is it him talking, or is he talking to somebody else, is this his story?"

On hard work:
"Randy Newman has always said that he actually doesn't like songwriting; it's a lot of work for him and he resents it. ... that's [not] such a foreign feeling. I feel a responsibility to write songs. ... I know that I feel a lot better doing it than I feel when I'm not doing it."

On opening the channel:
"... there are songwriting wheels that get greased in your head. It can be a lot of work to get them moving. Once they get going, it just starts pouring out of you. You take notes and you write everything down, and it cannot be turned off. Morning, noon and night. Driving in a car. Trying to go to sleep. These lines keep coming to your head. You've got to get the wheels moving. Once you do, grab onto something solid and hang on."