Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen Talk Lyrics | Louder
Louder
Follow
1/4/2025
Exclusive: Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen, whose debut Smith/Kotzen album is out now, chat about songwriting and lyrics.
Category
🎵
Music
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
The song I want to stay kind of started just with...
00:10
Sort of vibe, obviously going to be a bit of a band.
00:14
Yeah, I remember that song, the chorus melody was driving me nuts.
00:20
Because you had that part and I had the chorus and that melody I didn't know what to sing there.
00:26
I kept waking up every day with that...
00:30
I guess you made me crazy.
00:34
One good time, maybe I got lazy.
00:43
I didn't know what to sing there, you know, it took forever.
00:46
But I think some of the stuff, the lyrics is what we probably spent the most time on, isn't it?
00:50
Yeah, we sat for hours here.
00:52
I mean, lyrics are important.
00:55
When I was a kid growing up, I didn't know what Ian Gilliam was singing, Highway Star.
01:03
But it just sounded great.
01:05
So sometimes the lyrics just have to sound good.
01:08
But I think if you dig deeper, you want them to mean something.
01:11
And they've got to sing good as well, phonetically.
01:15
Some words just don't sing.
01:17
And when people say the lyrics are that...
01:19
When a singer says this song has got great lyrics,
01:21
they probably mean they can really get their voice around it.
01:25
And it just makes it easy to sing.
01:27
That's a great point.
01:28
It is twofold because you have lyrics in a story that reads well.
01:33
So you read it.
01:34
However, how it sings is really a big part of why a lyric gets written in a certain way.
01:41
It's because it sings great songs.
01:43
Even Sinatra and all that.
01:45
Lots of vowels and stuff like that.
01:50
Also, when we're writing with that, say, I Want to Stay.
01:55
You're searching.
01:57
You've got the chords.
01:58
You can hear the melody.
01:59
And then, I Want to Stay, for some reason, you come up with a title.
02:04
And then you have to work around that and make it make sense.
02:08
Because what comes to you is often what you stick with.
02:13
And you write a song around that.
02:16
The great thing about Amazon and Bounce Off is rituals.
02:19
Say, I Want to Stay.
02:20
What was that you sang there?
02:22
Okay, that sounded good.
02:23
Just keep that and work around it.
02:26
That happened in, remember, Solar Fire.
02:29
And I remember you sitting there and saying,
02:31
Oh, that sounds good.
02:32
I had a rough sketch of a vocal on there.
02:35
And you said, Oh, Solar Fire.
02:38
That's interesting.
02:39
And I said, What?
02:40
Where did you come up with that?
02:41
And you actually said, Oh, I thought that's what you were saying.
02:44
And I'm like, No, but I could be saying that.
02:46
What does it mean?
02:47
You're sort of scatting.
02:48
And then now and again, Solar Fire.
02:51
And then, so, how do you make it sound great?
02:54
You know that?
02:55
Solar Fire.
02:56
Whatever.
02:57
That's a great, really strong title or something.
02:59
How do you make sense out of that?
03:02
So then the song was about, I thought,
03:04
we'll make it about something that's burning hot and glowing brightly.
03:08
When you're in the prime of your life, you're on stage,
03:10
and you're having a great time in your life, really.
03:14
Just when you're at your peak.
03:16
Solar Fire.
03:17
You're burning.
03:18
You're burning.
03:20
That was the spirit of that song.
03:22
That's great.
03:23
So he heard something.
03:24
I was just hearing the melody and the rhythm,
03:26
and he actually heard a lyric that I wasn't even saying.
03:29
But then once we established that, we wrote a song around it.
03:32
So these songs come in all different ways.
03:35
Yeah, they just seem to be, you sort of pull them out of the air.
03:38
They just come to you.
Recommended
3:40
|
Up next
Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen Talk Lyrics I Louder
Louder
5/4/2023
3:41
Richie Kotzen And Adrian Smith - Discusses Lyrics In This Feature | Louder
Louder
10/21/2024
13:05
The Loud And Fast History of The Acacia Strain | Louder
Louder
8/30/2024
4:44
Song Stories - The Smiths, 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'
NME
2/9/2022
0:49
Hear Mark From Foster The People Sing The Smiths
NME
2/9/2022
5:39
Keylock – The Story So Far | Louder
Louder
8/30/2024
3:40
Jordan Rudess Discusses 'The Astonishing' | Classic Rock | Louder
Louder
10/21/2024
9:42
Footage Of NASA Firing Up Artemis Moon Rocket Engine For 550 Second Test
Space.com
today
3:10
Chandra X-Ray Observatory At 25
Space.com
yesterday
0:44
OTD In Space - July 16: Apollo 11 Launches To The Moon
Space.com
yesterday
2:25
Advice On Large Money Inheritance
Kiplinger
yesterday
2:16
How Retirees Can Reduce Their Car Insurance Costs
Kiplinger
yesterday
2:03
How Do You Define Wealth - The Answer May Surprise You
Kiplinger
yesterday
1:23
The Thermohaline Circulation - The Great Ocean Conveyor Belt
Live Science
yesterday
1:32
Knowledge: In Quantum Physics, More Than One Reality Exists
Live Science
yesterday
1:51
Whale With No Tail Swimming Off The Coast Of Washington State
Live Science
yesterday
3:03
Judas Priest – The Story Behind Breaking The Law | Louder
Louder
yesterday
5:36
Black Stone Cherry – The Rambler Unplugged Session | Louder
Louder
yesterday
7:10
Steve Hackett - The Story Behind Wolflight | Louder
Louder
yesterday
3:12
10 Best Alternative 90s Albums
Louder
yesterday
2:18
The Most Underrated Albums By 10 Major Metal Bands
Louder
2 days ago
3:50
Slash & Myles Kennedy: Back From Cali Unplugged | Louder
Louder
2 days ago
3:03
10 Best Power Ballads
Louder
3 days ago
3:37
Blackberry Smoke - Living In The Song Live | Louder
Louder
3 days ago
4:32
When Five Finger Death Punch Met Rob Halford | Louder
Louder
3 days ago
