When I was nominated for a Grammy, my label dropped me - I have a wariness about trying for a hit.
— Tift Merritt
France was very opposite of the show-business experience I'd been living; I was anonymous and alone. I wore no makeup, wore the same clothes every day. And I wrote and wrote and wrote.
I travel in a Ford Econoline van with a trailer. So it's not quite so glamorous.
Sometimes when you're writing on a ukulele, you're in a totally new land, rhythmically or melodically.
I think, at the end of the day, I have an outsider's heart.
I think that there are a lot of things that come along with being a musician, but I don't want to whine about them. I don't want to complain about my job.
I think you have to ask questions that are scary to ask, and you cannot apologize for that, and you cannot worry what anyone else thinks about your journey.
I don't want to be overly philosophical, but I think there are things you earn for yourself as you go.
In France, I discovered that I love writing in the city. There's such an intensity to being in the city that matches the intensity of what you're experiencing in your head.
As much as I love being a singer-songwriter, I love throwing down on stage and letting it all out.
I was thinking about how a playlist is really so inadequate as opposed to a mixtape because it takes seventeen days to really make a mixtape with a homemade cover that you like and that you'd give away.
I'm always kind of surprised how much I'm associated with country music.
Music is like a really sacred, awesome thing. That first 45 minutes to two hours that you're on stage spending time with music every night is always really great.
I wanted to dedicate myself completely to the things that matter to me and let everything else go, and I think that's a really rewarding thing.
The thought of making work that's easily consumed and quickly forgotten - what's the point? I want my work to be cohesive, to age and improve like old leather.
My work is has always been very, very personal.
I'm a writer, first and foremost, and I sort of take my cues from the songwriters of the '70s, who are talking about what's really important to them.
You can always boil down the life of a musician to touring, playing, and writing.
My point of view as a writer has to be a lot more ego-less than just like being some performer on stage with a hairdo.
I really love music, and I definitely love playing music and getting to be a part of music.
I think you need a concrete, real-world metaphor to talk about inner life without feeling like a jerk.
