Honestly, I didn't have the patience for biology or history in an academic sense, but I always liked the kind of big questions.

Sometimes I just think we're not meant to fly halfway around the world in a day. That some kind of mutation is going to happen.

When I start asking my friends, "What do you think this means?" And it leads to way more interesting conversations than what it actually ends up meaning in the dictionary. Like "apocryphal," for instance.

I'm coming from a place that's more experimental and indulgent already, so for the last 10 years, it's been more like, "How can I defend my own sensibilities by writing a nugget of a little catchy pop song?" That's how I'm stretching myself, by writing something really simple.

The idea of writing songs because you're depressed and you need to communicate it somehow, that isn't really true for me.

The music that I write is often not necessarily full of doom and gloom. You'll notice in most of the darkest songs, the music is actually pretty peaceful and lulling.

Some of my earlier songs are kind of more about mental illness.