Bonnie McKee Quotes

I feel like a lot of pop singers hurt themselves if they don’t have the proper training.

After struggling for so long in the industry and writing so many failed songs and hearing ‘no’ for so long – I’m so grateful every time I hear a song that I was a part of on the radio.

I think the key to writing hit songs is simplicity.

I have been doing some writing on the side a little bit with artists that I’m really excited about. Kind of more up and coming people. But, I’m focusing more on my own project. It’s a full time job being an artist!

I love shoes. I am a shoe fanatic. I love my Giuseppe Zanottis – he is my favorite. I have them in every color. Other than shoes, it’s important to have a great black leather jacket.

I realized there are so many steps from getting a deal to having a hit.

The original title was ‘Waking Up Diagonal’. It’s the first line of the song. I just thought it was more interesting than ‘I Don’t Care‘, which is such a boring title to me. When I hear that song, it breaks my heart a little bit because it’s my story.

There’s a lot of little ‘Bonnie-isms’ in ‘Teenage Dream‘ that I was hoping to keep for myself.

I like to think of myself as the people’s pop star a little bit. I respect Lady Gaga so much, and I love what she does, but she has this kind of mysterious, out-of-reach thing. I’m just not that – as much as I’d love to have that sort of mystique, I think I’m kind of an open book.

I was writing songs as a kid about leprechauns and Catwoman and teapots – whatever it is that little girls wanna sing about. The first song I wrote was called ‘Kitten.’

When I think about ‘Since U Been Gone,’ I think the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Livin’ On A Prayer‘ – they’re kind of like sisters, a little bit. And ‘Call Me Maybe‘ was so wildly original, and so quirky, and so satisfying.

There are some artists that don’t like working with other females, which is fine. They have their own thing. I personally love being surrounded by other females.

‘Teenage Dream’ was the hardest breakup for me.

One thing I’d tell an up-and-coming singer is to never rely on other people for anything. The more self-sufficient you can be, the better off you’ll be.

I always had the fantasy of Hollywood and Los Angeles and the beach, not realizing that Hollywood was so very far from the beach.

When I get an artistic itch, I have to scratch it.

When I moved to Seattle in fourth grade, I joined the Seattle Girls’ Choir. It’s a world-class choir, and we competed, toured Europe, and went and sang at the Vatican, so it was a really awesome experience to have that young.

I like big, soaring melodies and fun, splashy lyrics. Maybe like what Blondie would do in 2013.

I started writing my own songs from the time I was a little kid. I would write my own lyrics to other people’s songs that I heard on the radio and take whatever song and make it about fairies and angels – whatever little girls sing about.

‘I throw my hand up in the air sometimes‘ is when you don’t get your way – when you give up, and you’re handing it over.

I wish I wrote ‘Don’t Speak’ by No Doubt. I mean, that is a classic heartbreak song; it gets me every time.

I had never really co-written. I thought it was weak or something if I needed to collaborate.

I’ve always had a teenage thread running through my music.

I have a notebook of concepts. There are titles everywhere if you are looking for them. I pull from them. There is a secret list that I keep for myself about what I want to sing about, and those are the ones I know I am not going to give up for someone else.

In my mind, I imagined L.A. to be skyscrapers on the beach. Of course, that’s not what it actually looks like. And growing up watching ‘Beverly Hills 90210′ and ‘Melrose Place,’ I always had an obsession with L.A. and California in general.

Try to say something familiar in a unique way so that it’s sing-alongable, even if you don’t speak English.

When I’m dealing with Britney Spears and Katy Perry, these massive brands, like, really, very Coca-Cola, you know what I mean? There are certain kinds of standards. There are risks you can take, and there’s risks that you don’t. And I think I’m interested in taking a little more risk in my own music.

I was born in Northern California and lived there until I was about eight years old. Then my parents moved me up to Seattle. I lived there from ages eight to 16. When I was a California kid, I remember running around in my bathing suit and barefoot all the time and getting a suntan.

‘Teenage Dream’ was the most difficult song I’ve ever been a part of. We wrote five different versions of it. We couldn’t get the lyrics right. Max Martin and Dr. Luke wrote most of the melody, and then Katy Perry and I were responsible for getting the lyrics right.

When I’m writing for other people, I have to play it safe.

I’m kinda famous for my barbecues – I’m always hosting parties.

My No. 1 is Johnny Depp, ever since ‘Cry Baby.’ He had my heart.

I thought back to my middle-school experience of having slumber parties and watching Romeo + Juliet and staring at Leo and thinking about my first kiss and what I wanted it to be like. And when you have your first real love, it’s an epiphany, you know? It’s like a whole new world.