Inspiration can come from anywhere – experiences, happy moments, dreams, or it can be something plain random, such as an object, an artwork or a person. These 5 stars have all revealed how they get inspired to write their music. For some it is all about reliving a past relationship or emotion they experienced, while others get inspired by their dreams and wake up with plenty of new ideas to put into their music! These 5 hit makers all reveal how they manage to make their chart topping hits!
Lana Del Rey
Lana wrote her hit song ‘Video Games’ about a boyfriend who changed dramatically after they dated for two years: “We were both living life on the straight and narrow when we met and two years into it, I didn’t know it, but he was off doing other things that he got in trouble for.”
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is often inspired by the hardships she went through as a teenager, and believes being bullied made her stronger: “There are two ways you can with it if you are bullied. You can let it destroy you, or you can use it as fuel to drive you: to dream bigger, work harder. I wasn’t invited to parties and I look back now and I’m so thankful that I was at home playing guitar until my fingers bled.”
Steven Tyler
Steven once experienced a magical, spiritual moment and now writes music to try and re-live it: “I saw this place in the woods where the sun was coming through and I’m walking around with my slingshot at nine years old… It was so quiet in there I thought I heard something called the children of the woods. It was my first spiritual moment… and I’ve always been writing songs to try to get back to that moment.”
Pixie Lott
Pixie takes a lot of her inspiration from negative emotions: “It helps to be in a sad mood. Say you’ve had an argument with a friend, your mum, your boyfriend… It makes you want to write it down. I can get angry. I get annoyed when people are selfish, and I get really annoyed when people use Twitter and Facebook to show off about themselves. But any emotion helps you write; you could be really excited about going out with your friends too.”
Lenny Kravitz
Lenny claims that he hears his new songs in his dreams and quickly records them when he wakes up: “It feels almost euphoric. The songs come fully formed. I actually hear a record playing, and I’m digging it. Then I wake up and realise, ‘Wait, that’s not a record. That’s a song. It’s something new.’ Then it becomes a matter of quickly finding a tape recorder.”
