I think I definitely learned how to structure songs, just from listening to a lot of 1960s, 1970s pop music, although I'm sure my mother's watchful eye had a lot to do with it.
I spend a lot of time doing watercolors and playing music in my apartment.
I wasn't a big fan of Instagram at first. I felt it was watering down the way music is perceived 'cause it made things seem more normal.
I feel that recording a song already compromises the magical music one can create in the mind, so the fewer people watering down this process the better.
To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.
The profusion of fonts is one more product of the digital revolution. Beginning in the mid-'80s and accelerating in the 1990s, type design weathered the sort of radical, technology-driven transformation that other creative industries, including music, publishing, and movies, now face.
My whole career began because I was always putting my music on the Internet. By the time I had my first tour, I had an audience everywhere I went, because people were listening online. I started with a website, Jasonmraz.com, pre-YouTube. You could e-mail me directly, and I would send you a CD.
Music played at weddings always reminds me of the music played for soldiers before they go into battle.
The thing is, I make music I like. So it's just weird if someone says they don't like it.
The weird thing about rap is that you don't get compared in the same way that athletes do, even though it's probably the most competitive sport in music. In basketball, they look at a player and say: 'This guy was the best in his prime at this sport.' But in rap it's not until you're dead or retired that people think about it like that.
We're fans of stuff like Maiden, but I think we generally get it from weirder places. For me, the Eagles' 'Hotel California' represents one of the most brilliant harmony approaches to music. Boston did it very well, too.
I don't care what people think of me, unless they think I'm mean or something, but I don't care if they think I'm like someone else because I know I'm not - I'm a total weirdo. I'm not selling a dream; I'm not selling fame like it is some sort of fantastic thing. I'm just trying to sell music and get on with my real life.
Well-written words are music.
I love writing Christmas music. It's some of the easiest songs to write... You draw from your own memories - it's kind of a wellspring of inspiration, in a way. With other songs, you know, you spend six months just trying to figure out what to write about.
'West Side Story' I used to watch all the time - I don't know why. Well, I do - it's a great movie. I love the music in it. I love the actors.
You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.
I am into nature and seeing whales. I went whale-watching, and I was really looking forward to that, but when you see it on TV and you see other programs do it, you're seeing close-ups of these massive creatures, and the music that's added gives you a certain feeling.
Music is supposed to create an associate level, wherein I and you and you and I can associate without any misunderstanding.
There's a lot of reflection that goes on whenever I write a song - it's been a wild whirlwind last couple of years and there's a lot to talk about, and hopefully that's evident in the music.
One time, I was out watching music, and someone whispered in my ear, 'You can do surgery on me any time.'
