Biography

You have an opportunity to really suss out a good song and a bad song over several years. I have this analogy, that a song is like a boyfriend; if it lasts 6 months, it could be okay.

As far as writing for other artists, very early on I learned a good lesson from Ms. Aretha Franklin. She asked me to write a song for her, and I excitedly wrote what I thought was a good 'Aretha Franklin' song; however when she received it she said 'I wanted a Brenda Russell song'. At that moment I learned that if a certain kind of artist wants a song from me, I should write the song as if I were going to record it myself; it takes on a more personal tone and that's what the artist is really looking for sometimes, something different than what's expected from them.

I never write songs that are without hope. People have to be inspired to another level. Like: My heart can't go on! I may feel like I'm going to die, but I wont because I know something good could be around the corner. I take responsibility on myself to inspire people and even make them cry. Yes, I'll make you cry but I wont leave you hopeless.

I'm a person that collects song titles. You know, if I hear a good title, like talking to a friend or whatever, I'll write it down. I keep a little song title book. I always think that in every title there's a song somewhere, and you've just got to thin it out. So when they sent me this music, I thought, 'Whoa, it's so haunting and beautiful, I love that.' And I was flipping through my title book and I just thought, 'Piano in the Dark, I wonder if that would go with that music I heard?' That's as easy as that happened. I had that title and I thought, 'Hmmm, maybe that'll work.'