Weird Deer reposts this 1999 songwriting interview with Vic Chesnutt:

“Songwriting-wise I’m doing what I do, and I’ve been trying not to think too much about an audience. I’m trying to forget that audience is out there. Trying to work through my little alchemy projects.
[...]
“The humor is important in my songs and in my songwriting because I have a tendency… I like to push a song towards the morose and then jerk it back. I think it has a lot to do with my schizophrenic nature—just my personality, where even in the darkest of days there’s goofy. I see the goofy in everything. I can’t help it. I have this split thing. I always see a couple of sides. It’s a curse. It makes me wishy-washy. So I always feel like even in the dark songs, when I’m feeling dark I’m not going to say no to the goofy if it presents itself. I’m even going to go search for it.” (Link)

Ananova.com has some interesting thoughts from Bono on the topic of songwriting:

“When I look at our first 10 years, I just hear unfinished work, lyrics we never finished because we ran out of studio time.”

“Feelings are stronger than ideas or words in a song. You can have 1,000 ideas, but unless you capture an emotion, it’s an essay.” (Link)

Al James, from the band Dolorean is interviewed by The Portland Mercury:

Do you think that as a indie musician, you really can’t “win”? Is the whole structure flawed to the point that so few people can actually make a living wage from it?

“I suppose it comes down to my definition of ‘winning.’ Asking to succeed financially by creating music is too much to ask of the process. Once you start having financial expectations of creating music or feel a sense of entitlement you’re walking a very slippery slope. The collaboration with other musicians, the ability to perform at a high level in other cities and countries, the chance to see my ideas come to fruition—yes, on my best day I can see this as ‘winning.’ On my worst, my stomach is in knots trying to keep it all together. I’ve been lucky enough to have some of the greatest musical mentors [Damien Jurado, Eric Bachmann, Richard Buckner] who’ve never pulled any punches and never told me that things will get better. They’ve all just taught by example, by putting their heads down, their egos aside and creating.” (Link) (Hat Tip: LargeHeartedBoy

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