James Iha Quotes

Coldplay are just four friends trying to make great music.

I dabbled a little bit in the whole music thing but I've always thought about Bernie Taupin, who is Elton John's lyricist; Elton John is the great melody and song writer but Bernie Taupin is the one who writes all the lyrics. I don't write lyrics, and I never wanted to be in the music business if I was just going to be a puppet in it.

I started with Bobby Darin. He signed me to Capitol when I was 15. I was 14, getting ready to be 15. Then the next encounter I had was with I think Peggy Lee. I sang background with The Blossoms with Darlene Love.

You know, there's still a lot of great songwriters out there who hand in songs. And there's a lot of brilliant singers and performers out there who sing other people's words. I enjoy doing both.

Not to speak disparagingly of Justin Bieber or Rihanna, but they're not so hands-on with their image or their sound. They don't write the music. They have people doing things for them.

My approach is to be part of a band that makes music, not hit songs.

Whenever I fill out the job description I put 'songwriter', never 'singer' or 'artist.' Singers come and go.

Growing up as a singer, and a cast member, and now as an adult, a songwriter, I get the luxury of choosing the kinds of songs that I want to sing, because I'll write, you know, hundreds of songs. Even though only 12 appear on the album. That's 12 that I've chosen to sing of my catalog.

I did this thing with Trisha Yearwood, a song called 'The Price.' I had been sitting on it for a while, because I figured, you know, this really needs a good singer.

I've sung other people's music all my life.

But if you want to be in a band and write music, then you should just be in a band and write music.

I began my career with infantile dreams of becoming a composer.

Anybody who thinks pop music's easy should try to make a pop single and find out that it isn't.

A lot of people don't do this. You can count on a couple of hands probably how many artists also produce and write, both for themselves and for others, and are able to be successful at both things.

I'm trying to break away from doing covers or from being considered only as a YouTube star. I'm a singer, songwriter, sound engineer, and producer.

We just want to be a band and play good music.

Joe Walsh is somebody who... he's a writer, obviously, and he's a singer-songwriter, whatever, but at the end of the day, when it comes to the Eagles, he's there to play guitar, and he's there to supply whatever is needed for that band, and that is what I feel with Metallica.

I was mainly a songwriter; I really wasn't much of a performer.

I've always had such a high level of respect for Taylor Swift because she writes all of her music.

Basically, I'm just a guitar player that figured out I wasn't ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing. So I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business.

As a songwriter, I got used to being in the background.

I think an album is all about the songs you've worked on and the journey it's taken to get there.

I'm in a band, I sing live.

I was an engineer for a long time. I was a sideman guitar player.

I started making music professionally when I was 14.