I always want to do something that just sort of fits the mood. It's supposed to help the song, it's not supposed to take away from the song or re-contextualize it. I always feel like the less you make it a conceptual territorial debut, the better.

I love having the impulsivity to change course. I think it's key to keeping things fresh.

Talk about a struggling artist having to work against enormous odds ... But I love movies so much, so I'm going to do it.

As soon as you start to think of that thing that you want to convey or say, you can always just say it much better than you can actually rhyme it or stuff it into a song. It's very, very difficult to just kind of get your point across without going the back way. And you have to be good at that, to not think about things so hard. Let the pen take over, so that it's somebody else's job to dissect the lyrics and tell you what you're all about.

I have a strong impulse to protect history and time and the lineage of events.

For me, self-gratification eventually took a backseat to trying to do something collaborative with other people, to trying to make something new.

I tried to just do things like make some money, be responsible, help out other artists who I see have had a similar path.