Being in the studio is okay but sitting in a room by yourself composing is a discipline that takes a certain type of mind set and Tommy has a great gift for that as did the previous guy.
Definitely, doing my solo stuff, it's fun in a different way. I get a lot more say. However, there's a lot more work to do because I have to make everything happen.
Somebody finally has to get out an ad, often after hours. Somebody has to stare at a blank piece of paper. Probably nothing was ever more bleak. This is probably the very height of lonesomeness. He is one person and he is alone
I've retreated to what I was originally, which is an individual songwriter.
I'm such a team player, and I love being in a group setting. You're used to looking to your left and right and someone being there. When you're out there on your own, you're like, 'Oh, boy.'
When you're making an album, it's, like, exciting every night you make something new, but you're the only one who gets to hear it.
I'm always afraid, because I do most of my stuff at home, where nobody bothers me, and I don't have to stroke somebody's ego or be careful about hurting someone's feelings. But I also want to know that I can still go into the world and be with other people and make music.
It's like, on my solo stuff, every single person who buys the record, gets it. On the other stuff, the masses... when you have a hit on the radio, not everyone's going to get it. They are going to buy it for the hit.
I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording.
I've done a lot of collabs, but most of the time, it's me on someone else's track.
Studies have shown that performance gets worse as group size increases ... If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority.
My primary lesson, however, was that I'm a solo writer, happiest when I'm making all the executive decisions. I've always been willing to rise or fall on my own merits.
I have three assistants, but there isn't a head assistant. All the important drawings I do myself. Every single character is also done by me.
I'll work by myself for years and then I'll think it'll be fun to et one of my friends like Marshall Brickman or Doug McGrath into a room and not be alone for the writing of the thing; to have the pleasure of taking walks and get lunch together; its sort of a fun process and then I do it and then I get back on my own for a while until I feel the need to do it again.
When I do solo material I definitely tend to overthink it. I make a lot of rules for myself that are a little bit arbitrary and... it's just painful.
You know, honestly, acting in film is remarkably independent. You're doing your thing and someone else is doing their thing.
I'd say 99 per cent of the time I write on my own, just with my guitar, and then it's trying to figure out what it needs in a production sense.
I'm a good acting partner for me... when I don't have anyone else, I do really well!
I wasn't letting people in with the music writing process, and for a long time, I thought I was hard to work with.
I tend to work best as a one-man Task Force, including even the roles of messenger, coffee maker and office cleaner.
I like my work to stand on its own as much as possible.
People are more productive when they're alone, but they're more collaborative and innovative when they're together.
I spend a lot of time working by myself developing songs, but I really need some other counterpart to help me pull it all together, because you go nuts working if I had to finish an entire project all within my own head.
I have a hard time working with other people with my own songs because I have a pretty complete idea of how it should be. It's usually just me multi-tracking which is better than coercing someone into doing my idea.
I'm not interested so much in collaboration. You see that from the history of my albums.
