I've always found it pretty difficult to write a happy song.

I never try and force-feed any song idea or lyrical message. It's really what's on my mind and what comes out of me. And a lot of these lyrics are metaphors for specific life situations that I've been through, and in most cases, the struggles. Something about human beings wearing sadness heavily on their sleeve inspires me to make something uplifting about the situation.

If you're waiting around for something to be handed to you or win the lottery, chances are nothing is ever going to go down, you know, so you got to make it happen on your own.

I've always found it pretty difficult to write a happy song.

Some people are more affected by, I hate to use the word "success," but I don't know what else to say, but some people are more affected by that than others.

I've been through a lot of ups and downs. I've been on both sides of it all, I guess. So there's not one specific event or thought that I'm dealing with or drawing from necessarily.

Let's say I'm at a party and I don't like the feeling I'm getting, I'll just leave. Why do I have to be there?