After my tour I had time to stay at home, be with my boyfriend and hang out with friends and that brought me down to earth and helped me write music from a more relaxed place.

I want to upset people, I want to make people think, I want to keep people interested.

I was a big fan of Middle Eastern elements of music and experimental electronic and tribal sounds.

I think the responsibility of pop stars is to liberate the masses. In that everyone can be whatever they wanna be. You can march to your own beat. It's so hard sometimes in our country because conformity is the way things are pushed.

People want to talk about whether I have rock cred, whether I'm selling out, the theatricality, the gay stuff... Chill out! And just enjoy yourself.

I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it's fast and broad.

If sexy scares you, don't listen to my music.