Songs I do have to strike an emotional chord the first time I sing them.
I fell in love with R&B music at a young age. The energy and aesthetic of that genre strike an emotional chord with me.
I have always struggled with expressing emotion, I used to think I was a very hard person but music has shown me I'm a big softy! Writing songs to me really is like writing a diary, it's very private and very personal. My most emotional songs have been written alone in a locked room, I'm able to express myself there.
I grew up with a piano, and my aunt taught me chords. I played with bands in high school and I could do like, C chord, G chord, D chord; really simple, rhythm piano.
I tend to like simple music. And clever, succinct lyrics. Songs that don't try to be more than they need to to be effective, to stir up something emotionally within you.
I've played the guitar since I was 12, and just taught myself songs chord by chord.
When I became a parent I forgot about the part of myself which was very emotional, very dour a little depressed - but very good at writing emotional songs.
People didn't know me. So, I had to strike a chord and build relationships.
Actually, because I'm so small, when I strike an open A chord I get physically thrown to the left, and when I play an open G chord I go right. That's how hard I play, and that's how a lot of my stage act has come about. I just go where the guitar takes me.
My love is new music, I tend to go and see a lot of bands, while [co-producer] Mark Cooper spends his time reading the press. It's often the new acts that strike a chord, because they aren't seen on other shows.
I get inspiration, a lot of times, from very commonplace things that just strike a chord and develop themselves in the subconscious.
I'm listening to scripts and would like to play characters that'd strike a chord with the masses.
So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.
Then I began to play. Variations on a G major chord, the most wonderful chord known to mankind, infinitely happy. I could live inside a G major chord, with Grace, if she was willing. Everything uncomplicated and good about me could be summed up by that chord.
I'm always working on lots of songs at once. For me it's very emotionally driven.
In my daily life, I tend to be very literal and unsuperstitious. But music gives me an outlet to be very emotional.