Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about.
I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last. Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about.
It's not hard for me to be honest with my fans because that's what I set out to do from the beginning - I've based my entire career off of just trying to do that for them - but I always kind of forget that my real life friends can hear my music and they can watch my interviews if they want and that's when I get kind of like- "oh..." - I don't necessarily sit down and talk to my friends about all the things that I write my music about, because it's easier for me to write music than to sit and talk to my friends about it sometimes- it's almost like writing in a diary.
Older people say, 'Oh I loved you in 'Sense and Sensibility,'' and that's the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about 'Galaxy Quest.' And there's a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about 'Dogma.'
Older people say, 'Oh I loved you in 'Sense and Sensibility,' and that's the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about 'Galaxy Quest.' And there's a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about 'Dogma.'
People used to talk about my lyrical content and not about my music, and to be honest, I think I have got lazy with my lyrics over the years.
The thing that makes me want to write a piece of music is having something to talk about, you know? Something I want to get across. Because I'm a composer, music is my first language, and that's what I reach for when I want to convey something.
It's hard to talk about childhood trauma. It's hard to talk about depression. It's hard to talk about anxiety. And we thought - I wonder if we just open up our subconscious and the things that we think about and hide from people every day and just let them come out in some of these lyrics.
Don't label me before we get a chance to talk about it. Talk to me first and see what kind of person I am. That's what I like to tell the media: Come talk to me, let's sit down and talk about what's really going on.
People think it's not necessary to talk to another human being, and that's the part of it that I don't like. Some people will go up and want to talk to you about the music, which is cool; they're enthusiastic about the songs and know stuff about it, or, 'I really like your music. Nice to meet you.'
It is said that I'm distant and cold. I'm just someone who's very shy. I'm not comfortable doing interviews because I have to talk about myself. To talk about yourself, you have to know yourself pretty well and I feel like there are still some shades in me that I don't know about.
For me music is central, so when one's talking about poetry, for the most part Plato's talking primarily about words, where I talk about notes, I talk about tone, I talk about timbre, I talk about rhythms.
For me [in my stand-ups] I do what is from the heart. I do what I relate to, what I can talk about, things that I can define. I don't try to talk about things just because they might be a popular subject. I talk about things I know about.
I'm just gonna talk about being Nigerian-American. I'm gonna talk about being single. I'm gonna talk about what happened to me on the train today. I'm gonna talk about so many other things that, as a comic, you're able to talk about because you see the world in sarcasm.
I'll talk all this craziness in my music, but when I have your attention, and you're listening to me, I'll talk about what I want to talk about and what I think we need to address.
When 'Center Stage' first came out, I had some little girls on an airplane who didn't want to actually talk to me but wanted to talk about me at the top of their lungs. And they took pictures of me while I was sleep. And you know what's the worst part? I get really, really airsick.
No one comes up to me asking for a crack dealer's number. People come up to me to talk about lyrics, about music, about the band.