A brief interview with Diane Warren in today's Guardian. Sadly short, i'd have really liked to have heard more about her writing process and how she feels about her own songs, but there are a few telling sentences. Notably:
"It's like when I wrote for Aerosmith [on their No 1 single I Don't Want to Miss a Thing], 'I could stay awake just to hear you breathing ... '" She makes a disgusted face. "If someone was listening to me breathing all night, I'd throw them out the window. Preferably a high-rise. Why would I want someone to listen to me breathe?""
The general impression is that she doesn't write out of any need to create or to express herself - it's a skill she has developed, she's good at it, it earns her money and that's about it as far as a personal connection with her material - and that's fine. I certainly wouldn't dream of criticising her for it, even though it's not how I, now most musicians I know, work.
However, the people who love her songs, and there are many. How many lovelorn teens have become smitten with the above line? Yet the woman who wrote it doesn't feel any connection with that emotion herself. Is it possible that her songs, and the songs of those like her, are instilling emotions and attitudes in people which would otherwise not exist? Is she portraying an image of love people grow to desire, without realising that it may not even be possible?
So many questions, so little text. I wonder if there was much cut, if so it's a shame, because despite my dislike of her songs I find her a fascinating person.
That said, i'm now listening to Glassjaw in an attempt to hear something from the heart. God help me.
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