It's amazing how a competitive nature can turn a negative into something positive.
Barry Mann
You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.
If I waited for inspiration every time I sat down to write a song I probably would be a plumber today.
Cynthia's lyrics always expressed the feelings people felt but they couldn't express themselves.
I get a different kind of lyric from someone else that might make me go in a different musical direction.
We lived, ate, and breathed pop songs.
I quit college. I was studying architecture for about a year.
You've got to really be able to accept the rejection.
We've written something like 900 songs in all.
A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.
I looked through our catalog year by year, and I saw that there were pockets of time when we wrote some terrific songs. Then all of a sudden, we'd go for another two or three months and there weren't great songs.
I also used to work in the Catskill Mountains as a bus boy, and I performed in talent shows.
If we didn't get the record, we didn't exist.
We became the songs we wrote.
I know at the beginning of our careers, my wife and I were gut wrenchingly competitive.
If we were the team that won out, then life was good and we felt that we were worth something.
I think that most writers who wait until they're inspired to write are just waiting for the fear to subside.
It's very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there's no creative crop to harvest.
I think if one wants to be in a continual state of insanity one should stay married to that writing partner.
I've written songs sober and I've written songs high.
The real danger of writing a great song when you're on something is that it might get you thinking that the only way to repeat that is by only writing when you're high.
There's so much fear involved in trying to do something you don't know how to do that drugs and alcohol can become a big part of your life if you have an addictive personality or are very unsure, which most songwriters are.
You have to be very brave in that first writing session.
It's very important, at least for me and for Cynthia, to get outside input.
You can get stale writing with each other for a while.
You're going to have more rejection than acceptance.
One other thing, if it's possible, as songwriters, you should also develop yourself as record producers.
