There are so many clichรฉs in the world, especially in music, that it's a never-ending creative font to just bring two of them together and let them interact.
Stephin MerrittI think there is such a valid concept as "serious music," meaning that if you don't take it seriously, you don't get it all.
Stephin MerrittPopular music of the last 50 years has failed to keep in step with advances in musical theater, namely Stephen Sondheim. But the two have grown apart so that popular music is based more than ever on a rhythmic grid that is irrelevant in musical theater. In popular music, words matter less and less. Especially now that it's so international, the fewer words the better. While theater music becomes more and more confined to a few blocks in midtown.
Stephin MerrittI'm not too sure if I have a very smart approach to revealing my life. Luckily, I doubt if many people really care about my life that much.
Stephin MerrittYeah, except that when I write pop songs I have pretty strict constraints that I impose on myself. 69 Love Songs is a constraint. That the titles have to begin with "I'"s is a relatively strict constraint. Charm of the Highway Strip is all travel songs. And I am free to change the plot slightly to accommodate something that happens to rhyme conveniently.
Stephin MerrittI write songs by sitting around in bars, so drinking songs are a little obvious. It's surprising that I don't write entirely drinking songs, since I am, in fact, drinking while writing the song. Drinking and love are the two principal sources of pleasure outside of music. There's only so many sources of pleasure, really. That's about it. Well, there are other arts as well. But none of them are as pleasurable as music, on a physical level.
Stephin Merritt