Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Cynthia Erivo, Julia Michaels and Jon Batiste sat down to talk about songwriting on Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter. In this preview clip, the artists speak about what it means to make music that inspires listeners or helps them get through a tough time. Plus, they reflect on the why they create and write songs. Watch the full conversation on SundanceTV and AMC+ on Dec. 31.
00:00As creators, what is it like when you do hear that your music has really helped someone in a hard time when it's so hard to think positively?
00:10It makes you focus in on the thing that you're actually doing.
00:13So there's lots of noise around the actual art of making something, making music, making film, making TV, whatever it is.
00:19But when a person has taken the time to listen, to be there, meet you where you're at, meet you where you were when you made the thing and take that with them in their daily life and use it as a tool to help them get through whatever they're getting through, you're a part of their lives.
00:40You've made something that sticks with them, that they get to carry with them.
00:45And that is possibly one of the most incredible honors you can have.
00:48Yeah, truly.
00:49So that anything else is just not important, that is the important thing, making things that people can hang on to when there's nothing else to hang on to.
01:01I think to refocus whenever it feels like everything else is out of focus on that, I think it's really, really special.
01:09If I'm honest, I don't know that you could have told me when I was 15, 16 that I'd be here, that I could make music and have people listen to it.
01:17It was like a pie in the sky dream, you know?
01:19I feel the same.
01:21So when people, I feel completely the same.
01:23You know?
01:23I thought it was like as unrealistic as a cartoon on TV.
01:27Yeah.
01:27Like I would, I would watch artists and I'd be like, oh my God, imagine doing something like that.
01:32But never, ever thinking that that was even a possibility, that doing this, sitting here, like making music, writing songs, putting them out, connecting with people, going on tour, like connecting one to one with people in a room.
01:45It's just, it's such a profound experience.
01:47I think about this a lot, John, in your, in your Grammy speech a few years ago, you said you were like, I show up every day, I make music every day because it's a spiritual practice for me.
01:57I think about that all the time and that's totally what it is.
02:00If I don't like write every day or create something, I, I don't feel like myself.
02:04I don't feel, it doesn't matter if I like put it out, you know what I mean?
02:07It's, it's just like, it's something that you need to do just like breathing or eating or, you know, that's what it feels like.
Be the first to comment