“A part of my job is to bring the news from elsewhere to here and to take back some news from here. . . . You can't change the world singing songs, believe me, but you can offer people an alternative perspective, even on their own situations. So that's what I'm trying to do.”
“A song is like a newspaper. It's capable of carrying a number of different messages. Some of them are advertisers, some of them are editorial, some of them are reportage, some of them are sport. So, as a songwriter you can use any of those.”
“And since September 11 and the war with Iraq, I think people are more attuned to music that's got something to say. It's just a shame that such things have to happen for more people to get into it.”
“You can only make political music if you have a context. . . . You cannot make political music in a vacuum. It'd be like me writing songs now about Margaret Thatcher. It'd just make no sense. But I think in the wake of 9-11 people are trying to articulate their feelings.”
