Self-Expression Through Music Quotes

Singing your own songs is all about individual expression.

I always made my songs very conversational, and if anyone ever has a conversation with me, they know I'm a very open guy, very open and honest.

When you're writing songs for yourself, as all artists do, it's about 'me.' It's about what you feel and your emotions. You're trying to get something out of your system about your experiences.

I just don't like to get intimate. I don't want anyone to know what I feel and what I think, and if they can't get some kind of an idea of what sort of person I am through my music, then that's too bad.

I have a song I wrote called “Autobiography.” I came from a very intense living situation, with having a parent on drugs and not having a lot of money. So I always want to talk about the real things. But I think 90 percent of my music, I want it to be 'feel-good music'. I'm already recording tracks for my album, but when it comes time to actually say, 'this is the album,' I may be in a completely different space than I'm in right now.

Other than the 'Sesame Street' soundtrack, which I was obsessed with, the first artist I really felt I'd discovered on my own was Amy Winehouse. She was the first female artist I wanted to write like and sing like and be like.

I was very introverted growing up and I had small circle of friends. Any opportunity I got to rap or articulate things through rhyme or hip hop was great for me.

Since I started making music, it had always been for myself.

What I do is all about expressing myself, whether it's music or the clothes I wear.

I definitely still have ... angst but I also wrote some songs that say it's okay to love, now. I'm happy in my life, and it's a bit easier to write happy songs when you are actually happy.

Music is one way of expressing yourself, and fashion is another.

'If You Could Read My Mind' was written during the collapse of my marriage. It's a great song. No one has any gripes about it. I wondered what my wife and daughter might think. My daughter is the one who got me to correct 'The feelings that you lacked' to 'The feelings that we lacked'.

The solo album is really my way of branching out and doing my own thing. I'm mostly known for playing other people's music, so this is a way to just do something that is purely from my heart and my creativity. So it's really exciting.

Songwriting is such an intricate part of me as an artist and as a person; I couldn't just let someone else do it.

When you try to put everything into music, there's no room left to try to make you think we're cool. We know you think we're cool.

I started to write songs. And I started to like what I was writing. I think it's a new way for me to express things that are closer to myself than when I play a role, because, of course, it's really not me. I'm finding a new way. I don't know what it's going to be. But I know that I will need to give it to people one day.

There are things that I refuse to deal with except through my music... because I don't trust humanity that much, and I don't know if I trust me that much. But I trust the songs.

I started writing songs by myself. That always came from whatever I was feeling and being honest about that because I never had any intention of anyone ever hearing them.

If something happens to me, you're going to hear about it. I only know how to write songs about my life.

I made songs really for myself - I didn't ever expect to put it out there.

It was during this [as a kid] time that I came out of my shell vocally and performance wise, I learned how to really and truly sing in a different way.... my way. It was an amazing experience because I also realized my lifelong dream - to sing my own songs...I have something to say and it was a great release for me to share that part of myself with others.

Please understand that I make music to express myself, and if you know anything about me, you know that I'm nothing but honest.

I have my share of insecurities, hopes and fears. My music is my way to rearrange the world according to my own hopes.

You get as much out of rock & roll artistically as you put into it. There's nobody who can teach you. You're on your own and that's what I find so fascinating about it.

The less I talk in bars, write emails, express myself in an emotionally lewd way outside of my songwriting, the more I have to do it through my music.