Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.
I tend to overthink things. I'm not the guy who screams 'This is a world smash!' when I finish a song.
Doo-wop is special music to me because it's so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.
I'm a big fan of the young 1950s Elvis when he would just go onstage and control the whole environment.
I don't like two stories. I like one story. I never grew up with stairs. I like to stick to what I know.
I can put some chords together and maybe write a song, but I'm learning every day. And that's the fun part.
My dream was to not get a day job but to sleep, wake up and do my music. I want to keep that dream forever.
When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change 'cause you're are amazing just the way you are.
In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.
Ever since I was a kid, this was all I wanted to do. I've wanted to do music. I wanted to sing. It's all I know.
My dad was just the king of finding these little spots for us to stay that we should never have been staying at.
I guess if I'm a product, either you're chocolate, you're vanilla or you're butterscotch. You can't be all three.
Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.
I just know that I'm a fan of all different kinds of genres. You're supposed to be free doing music, and that's how I feel.
I felt like I didn't have [any] pizzazz, and a lot of girls say I'm out of this world, so I was like I guess I'm from Mars.
What I'm hoping is that every album I'm going to do will give my audience something different, and that they'll grow as I do.
Music is not math. It's science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.
I think I don't take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it's a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.
I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There's no tricks. It's honesty with big melodies.
I wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family band. Straight Partridge Family.
'Doo-wop' is a very special word for me. Because I grew up listening to my dad who, as a Fifties rock & roll head, loved doo-wop music.
Whether it be a reggae song, rock song, a love song, the main thing was just to, whatever I was feeling, to try to capture that emotion.
I could sing you a thousand and one doo-wop songs. I love the simplicity in that music. It's not super-poetic, it's just from the heart.
I want there to be a piece of me in my music, you know? I genuinely believe that's the secret of all the success that's happened (for me).
Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There's a lot of things that come with fame - it's what people in the limelight have to do.
I've definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it's a little more raw.
My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it's just kind of been like my habitat.
With my being from Hawaii and being very family oriented I don't really have a fear of a tragic ending. I dont see any tragic ending for me.
I'm a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker's 'You Are So Beautiful' and Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' - songs that go straight to the point.
There's always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened.
I don't ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, 'It sounds good!' It's got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.
I love doing shows. I love rocking shows. I love playing instruments. I love singing. If I can find a way to do that and feed my family, then I'm a happy man.
Songwriters, you have to work - you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song's going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.
It's probably the worst feeling in the world, when you're deeply and madly in love with a woman and you know she's not feeling you the same way, and you don't know why.
I got so much love for classical music and I hear so much incredible music.You should know a bunch of music and have respect for all sorts of genres and styles of music.
In my songs, I'm not saying something that's never been said before. The have lyrics aren't going to blow people away. It's the emotion and the melody that drive it home.
As proud as I am of Doo-Wops I feel like, 'Oh, man. People haven't seen nothing. They don't even know what I'm about to do,' and that's what I can't wait to show the world.
My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.
A grown man should always carry cash, right? I don't know who told me, but someone told me that a long time ago, and the biggest turnoff is when a guy doesn't have cash on him.
The drumming helps a lot when I'm producing songs or writing songs. My knowledge of drums helps more in that aspect, (although) I don't know, man; I'm not great at any of them.
I know a lot of artists say this, but it's hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There's no tricks.
My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.
You aspire to be as great as Michael Jackson is as an artist. I don't think any artist in pop, rock or hip-hop has ever done it any bigger than him. You know what I mean? He's the man.
I came to California and got signed at a young age. And it's not like you see in the movies, where you start rubbing shoulders with Timbaland and Pharrell, and you become a giant pop star.
People can hear my songs are coming from something real. I mean what I say; I'm not just writing to impress critics or young girls, or older girls. The way I talk is the way I write a song.
'Nothin' on You' by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I'd been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.
My goals are - I don't need much. I'm a simple man. I think that success is having fun. And when I'm having fun doing music, I'm happy. If I can make a little money on the side doing it, I'm really happy.
I love that I can talk to my fans through Twitter, to cut out the middle man. Because I've done interviews where my words have gotten twisted, so it's nice to be able to have things coming straight from me.
It's dedicating yourself to your craft. Spending thousands of hours in a studio learning how to write a song, learning how to play different chords, training yourself to sing. You know, to get better and better.
I feel it's my job to continue being a student of music if I want to continue being an artist and a producer of other artists. You have to keep filling your mind with other music. You have to be ahead of the curve.