Erin McKeown

I am really pleased to hear each of my songs described as a total surprise. This is what I want!

— Erin McKeown

I didn't realize at the time that if I wrote about something, I was going to have to talk about something. A…

— Erin McKeown

I started to understand what the song could be about. The ache of nostalgia even for things we don't like, the commitment…

— Erin McKeown

It's funny because my main awkwardness around writing the song had little to do with the method.

— Erin McKeown

Lenelle Moïse's poems render the abstract - policy, disaster, history, diaspora - specific. Her words make the political not just personal, but…

— Erin McKeown

I think I have come across as "unafraid" because I really cannot control what comes through me in my writing.

— Erin McKeown

When I'm recording something (especially because I produce my own music) I might consider how hard it would be to replicate a…

— Erin McKeown

As a listener, I like a wide range of sounds.

— Erin McKeown

I learned how to have a little bit of distance when I explained songs and a little bit of distance when I…

— Erin McKeown

Really, everything for me comes from "Manifestra." It was an incredible gift of a song; it really describes an important moment in…

— Erin McKeown

As a consumer of culture, I like a wide range of emotions to be touched in art. It's funny but on the…

— Erin McKeown

I wanted to touch on the piece where often politicians use "god" to excuse their actions.

— Erin McKeown

Mostly, the people in "the room" are paid lobbyists representing interests that could afford to pay them. No wonder policy isn't being…

— Erin McKeown

I like garage band for writing because you only have crayons and there are only five crayons in the box. Your choices…

— Erin McKeown

So many policy decisions that effect musicians are being made without any input from musicians at all.

— Erin McKeown

The only really weird part for me was making sense of the person on the TV at the same time as the…

— Erin McKeown

As I've gotten older, I have gotten a lot better at finding the pleasures of making music despite the business of it.

— Erin McKeown

When I began writing songs, there was a pretty direct line between what was happening in my life and what I wrote…

— Erin McKeown

I always write from rhythm first, so if I need a song fast, I have to start there. Then I just threw…

— Erin McKeown

My approach to writing and recording now is pretty much the same as when I started. Except now I worry even less…

— Erin McKeown