I did my last year of high school as an exchange student. I lived south of the Atlanta, in a quite strange place - real southern. I formed my first band that year and we just started playing my songs live. It was way in for me to get to know people and to really feel at home there - through music.

I think it's always been very natural. I don't write a diary - it's reflections and thoughts and feelings that come to me at a certain point, and when I go back to my old records, they capture the time I was in then.

I've always been pretty unfaithful - I've never stuck to one kind of genre or music.

Singing in second language makes you brave in a way you're not aware of. You say things in very blunt ways or direct ways. It sets your mind free because you don't have a history with the language. You have to use the most direct way of communication, which is saying what you want to say in the way you can.

I've always been drawn to all kinds of music - to me, it's all the same. There's different arrangements and slightly different ways of writing, but if it's a good song, it's a good song - you can dress it up any way you like.

When I went, I hadn't had very much time to have hopes or expectations. I knew very little about Nashville, and I think that was probably good. When I was there, I got really lucky - I ended up with people that just were amazing musicians, and that's the Nashville that I experienced. That is a big part of Nashville - there's a lot of musicians, and that makes it a very special place and shapes the city.

I did my last year of high school as an exchange student. I lived south of the Atlanta, in a quite strange place - real southern. I formed my first band that year and we just started playing my songs live. It was way in for me to get to know people and to really feel at home there - through music.