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	Diane Warren
	Interviews with Successful Songwriters DIANE WARREN THOM BELL			< last page \| 1, 2, 3, 4 JB: So co-production is good. DW: Yeah, I would never do it myself. I would never think of myself really as a producer enough to produce it myself. To work with another is great, then I can be there for the vocal and work with the singer and make sure certain things go right. It's like an executive producer, I guess. I don't care if I get credit usually, I just wanna be there to make sure especially on a really "A" song, one you know is really great. I had some I was really close to and I didn't want to just give them away and have it come back with no arms or legs. I'm really protective lately of songs I think are really great. JB: When you start writing a song, is the commercial consideration as to whether it's going to be a hit something you think about or do you try not to think about it? DW: I don't think about it anymore. I'm naturally a commercial pop writer. I've programmed myself to be that and studied that for the last 18 years. JB: So that's something you trust...that your instincts will guide you? DW: Yeah, I have really good pop, commercial instincts. All I did was listen to top40 commercial radio growing up. So, I have a natural inclination towards the commercial. That's just where I am. I'm not going write a ten minute song about flowers or nuclear disarmament. That's just not me, although it's great if you can do it and do it well. JB: So when you're in your creative mode, you don't think about any of those kind of considerations. DW: Well, no, but I mean, I think about the hook being strong enough and stuff like that, sure, objectively later, but I rely on the instincts mostly. Later I might reconstruct it to make the setup stronger or the hook stronger. I don't usually think about that when I'm at the piano writing. I just tend to go with what I'm feeling and throw up later (laughs). JB: When you come up with ideas, do you try to be adventurous? DW: Yeah, always. I want to take chances lyrically and definitely musically, going to weird places. It has to be interesting for me. I'm with these songs for such a long period of time. If they bore me, I'm never going to finish them, 'cause then they'll just bore everyone else. I do like to take chances. It's really important for a writer to not play it safe. Go somewhere that might seem a little odd or phrase it in a strange way. I'm learning more in the last year or so to take more chances. It's becoming more important to me. JB: Does that come with the confidence of being more successful? DW: Yeah, you know they're going to love everything you do...just kidding. You get a little more confident and that makes it easier to take chances. I'm not the most confident person I've ever met. But I am a little more so than I was. I do like to try new things. That's the only way you can grow with anything you do. As a writer, especially, if you don't keep learning and taking chances and trying different things, you're just going to stay in a rut. That's kind of boring. JB: Are you listening to new kinds of music? DW: I listen to a lot of music. There's some good music out there. I try to listen to all the good stuff if I can. JB: Are you looking for different musical styles to get turned onto? DW: Yeah, you can learn from everything. I was saying before that I like to be a sponge and listen to everything. "Rhythm of the Night"...where did I get that? I'm a Jewish kid from the valley, pretty far away from the islands, but I listen to it. I tend to write different kinds of styles. I write the hard rock thing and the ballads and the Latinish things that I like...I can take bits and pieces and be influenced by everything. Then I put it through me and comes out as what I am. JB: I remember that even though you had all this talent, you were also really inscure about it. DW: Yeah, that hasn't changed. JB: But despite that, now you're having all this success and people are calling you. How are you adjusting to that? DW: Slowly. It's a nice thing to adjust to. It's strange for me, 'cause these are people I've idolized my whole life and I'm wondering why they're calling me. I'm still at the stage where it's very strange to me. JB: Like every writer, you go through really long periods of being rejected by everybody. DW: Oh yeah, I went through my whole life getting rejected. Not just in this business, but in life. I was the person that Janis Ian wrote about in "At 17," that no one wanted on their basketball team. All the rejection probably made me work harder for something. JB: Yeah, for some that works, and for some it destroys them. Obviously, you have a core of ambition and a love for what you do that gives you the drive to do it. DW: I think even that rejection made me work harder. I also work off of anger really well. I mean, you saw that. JB: Absolutely, because we knew how devastated you were even though we kept telling you we really believed in you. If we didn't think you were good, we wouldn't have bothered to criticize. You'd come back with a bunch more songs and we'd have to disappoint you again, but the songs kept getting better. DW: I might add that it helps to be persistent in this business. JB: You did just keep on doing it. DW: Yeah, it's strange when the doors start opening. You're so used to them closing in your face, you're shocked. At least I am. The fact that Burt Bacharach would even consider writing with me is still freaking me out. It's great. I'm outside a candy store looking in. JB: And then suddenly the guy comes out and gives you a whole bowl of candy. DW: Yeah, I'm used to them locking the door in my face. But it's great. I'm not used to it. JB: You probably never will be. DW: Yeah, I don't think I will. I'm really happy it's turning out this way. I always had a fantasy of meeting my idols and saying, "I love what you do" and they'd say they love what I do and it floors me. I love it! It makes all the rejection you have to go through really worthwhile. < last page \| 1, 2, 3, 4