I think one of the pitfalls of doing your own music is that sometimes you can never be satisfied with it: you’re afraid to say that it’s done, and you keep reworking it or re-recording it or re-writing it. – Adam Schlesinger
Most of your day is spent working, and being in a band is no different. We’re just business travelers in a way. – Adam Schlesinger
With Fountains of Wayne, after ‘Stacy’s Mom’ happened, we started making a little bit more money and getting a little bit more known. – Adam Schlesinger
If you’re sitting in a place like Martha’s Vineyard, I don’t think you’re going to write a song about a ski resort. – Adam Schlesinger
The Mall Of America, outside Minneapolis, is just a mall. Yeah, it’s big. So, like, instead of your typical 12 Starbucks, there are 30. – Adam Schlesinger
What should a song be about? It’s a trick question for songwriters because lots of amazing songs aren’t ‘about’ anything. Or, at least, they’re not about anything that’s obvious or logical. – Adam Schlesinger
I generally prefer to come in to the studio with a fully written song and then work on the arrangement with the band. Sometimes even the arrangements are pretty much already worked out in my head, but other times we experiment. – Adam Schlesinger
When you’re writing for a show, you’re writing part of the script. You have to tell the story. – Adam Schlesinger
I think with musicals, it’s much more part of the script. They don’t want songs that would stop the show; they need songs that keep the plot moving. – Adam Schlesinger
I had a job transcribing a biotechnology-litigation seminar. You put headphones on and fast-forward and stop with your feet. There were a lot of ‘um’s.’ – Adam Schlesinger
We were called ‘Three Men Who, When Standing Side by Side, Have a Wingspan of Over Twelve Feet.’ We had that name for a week or so. We were also called ‘Are You My Mother?’ for awhile. We went through a lot of really dumb band names – almost as dumb as Fountains of Wayne. – Adam Schlesinger
In promotional mode, every day is a series of decisions. You can easily fill up your day with checklist stuff. – Adam Schlesinger
I think in most cases, when you’re writing a song, you’re just making up a little story, and you’re not really thinking about making a point one way or another about it. You’re just coming up with a little scenario and seeing it through, and that’s it. – Adam Schlesinger
Scotland is a picturesque country where the people are friendly yet completely incomprehensible. Also, the national delicacy is a sheep’s stomach filled with its liver, lungs, and heart. – Adam Schlesinger
I normally write on acoustic guitar, although piano is the instrument that I actually studied. Occasionally, I’ll write on the piano or sometimes with no instrument at all. – Adam Schlesinger
I am not very regimented unless I have to be. I wish I was someone that could just write every day, but I tend to work on specific projects for a specific period of time and then stop. – Adam Schlesinger
London is a vast, complex city designed by the same guy who created the Habitrail. – Adam Schlesinger
One of the more surreal days I’ve ever had in the recording studio was Martin Fry teaching Hugh Grant his old dance moves. Showing him how to do the hair-flip and the point, and all these sort of trademark moves of his. – Adam Schlesinger
The Cleveland Cavaliers are forced to play in something called the ‘Quicken Loans Arena.’ This is a terrible name for a sports venue. – Adam Schlesinger
