Washed Out Quotes

We didn't want to worry about the formula that has been implanted into our brains - this verse/pre-chorus/chorus format. When we were writing 'The Papercut Chronicles,' we had no idea about any of that. We didn't know how to count bars or how to write what's considered a well-formatted pop song.

One-minute songs are easy as hell!

Creating a decent pop song is a challenge - and occasionally, once in every decade - it's kind of fun to do that.

When I'm writing a pop song, I'll just write formulaically, strategically.

When I started trying to produce records for other people, one of the first tracks I wrote and produced was sort of a 'Kelly Clarkson circa 2008,' kind of big-brassy, guitar-pop, rock song. I was like, 'I can do this. I can make pop songs.' It was bad.

I find it really easy to write on the bass, because you kind of get straight to the point: you do lyrics and melody without thinking about decorating the song until after you've finished it.

Pop is like a puzzle: to write a perfect pop song, you never know, and there's so much that can happen in a second with a song.

One of my first songs I ever got a decent cut on was with a songwriter out of Xenomania, called 'All Fired Up' for the Saturdays.

I remember when that Kelis song 'Milkshake' came out, and just how extreme it seemed in terms of that really high triangle part and then the really low subs and then her voice in the middle.

I'm the biggest Drake fan - my favorite is 'Tuscan Leather' because it's like three songs in one, and for somebody that's obsessed with keys, the outro has the best keys ever.

I've written for Rita Ora; I've written for Chiddy Bang - there's been a few.

I don't think writing open-ended lyrics is necessarily an important part of writing good pop songs.

For me, pop melodies are their own thing that have their own emotion, but they don't necessarily belong exclusively in a pop song.

But while I was working with my team to conceptualize 'White Night', we hit writer's block and couldn't come up with a single that I felt would resonate with listeners.

I make popular music but I'm not necessarily a pop produce.

Every single song on 'Torches' was a little self-contained pop song, so there wasn't any fat on the songs; there wasn't a lot to cut.

EDM has trained a new generation of listeners' ears to accept a much broader range of what equals a song. EDM has become top 40 stuff: those sounds, those styles, those ways of thinking about song structure - even thinking that vocals aren't necessarily the central element - those ideas have made their way into popular culture.

I always wrote for musicians, especially guitarists. I write songs that people who aren't great virtuosos can play.

I naturally make commercial music: it's never been a calculated decision to make pop music. I'm a genuine pop music fan.

'Mr. Misunderstood' - that whole album is incredible and just has amazing songwriting.

As a songwriter, I go into the studio, and I just try to write a great song.

I look at bands like the Beach Boys, Hall & Oates and Blur, and those are the bands I want to be in company with because their songwriting is intelligent, and yet you don't need to be a musical genius to pick it up.

We can guarantee you that 15 to 30 seconds of any of our songs are going to be good. The rest, we can't guarantee.

When it comes to songwriting, I grew up in the Seventies listening to AM radio. So I've all these pop songs running through my head from Paul McCartney and Elton John, and a lot of stuff that was written on piano.

The pre-chorus always flows and the chorus is always a little bit harder for me because I put pressure on myself. I didn't know that there was a proper way to do these things, so I just write what sounds good to me in my ears and then I hope to God that someone else likes it too.