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[back to main] |
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m * u * z * z * a * k |
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[..ya ready for me?] |
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this is really what i'm all about. i love writing songs more than anything else, except perhaps straight-up fiction. like everything else, i have a theory on music, just like i have one on poetry. a set of lyrics is a snapshot of the life of the author. this is why individual songs are called records, and why compilations of records are called albums. they come naturally, when i'm happy, when i'm sad, when i sympathize, empathize, fraternize. i don't expect you to bond with them, or understand them, even. they're simple, yet sometimes strikingly poigniant when re-read. judge for yourself. |
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* * * |
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i am often asked what my influences are. i can't really tell you where they lie or where they stem from. i know that i penned my first song, Awake, Yet Dreaming, when i was 16, and haven't stopped writing since. when i started listening to meredith brooks and pink, i wrote songs like 161 (More To Me Than That), Mea Culpa, and One Year Guarantee. anger, of course, always plays a vital role in my compositions--very rarely will i write a song that doesn't have anger behind it. i suppose i have alanis morissette to thank for that. sometimes the anger isn't my own (as in |
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Watch Her Cry (a song i wrote about one of my best friends, anna) or How Predictable, a song i wrote about the double standard that's always roaming around in male-female sexual relationships. |
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poe, possibly one of the most impressive lyricists i have ever had the pleasure of discovering (right after maynard from T O O L), i suppose, is always an inspiration. every time i listen to her songs, it makes me wanna compose something deep and witty and insightful and poigniant, all at the same time. i don't think i've done it yet, but maybe i'm close. Songs like my Santa Cruz (still a work in progress at this point), are the kinds of things that i write trying to let her style flow through. |
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def leppard has been a huge influence for a large part of my life. ever since i first heard them pouring out of the speakers in my living room back home, i couldn't get enough. |
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songs like You are heavily influenced by their use of riffs and high harmonies. maybe mutt lange'll get a peep at my stuff and decide to give me a run for my money. hah!
I suppose the huge latin american crossover that has spawned ricky martin, thalia, shakira and paulina rubio in the last couple years has also fueled, to some extent, my spanish songwriting. the song at this point that is the most complete and i am pleased with the most is Dejame Ver (Let Me See), a rock ballad/underground house mix that is, so far, shaping up pretty well.
rap, hip-hop and R&B are clearly also huge influences, and songs like Wonder Why and Bored show that to a degree. for that, i have missy elliott, tupac, biggie, beyonce, ll cool j and scores of hip-hop artists to thank.
like i said, there are a lot of influences. next time you ask me that question, prepare for a long-winded answer, haha.
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