I've always recognised that I have influence, whether I like it or not, and that I can use it to do something good.

You don't normally think of Los Angeles as a place to go to get away.

I had received some minor indie label interest when I was 14 after I was in a schools music competition thing in NZ called 'Rockquest', but I knew it wasn't the right time and that I wasn't good enough and needed to concentrate on school.

Singing was always quite a private thing... I don't think my own mum even heard me sing until after I signed with Sony just out of high school!

In the end, no matter how my records are panned or praised, if there are kids and communities in developing nations that have improved living conditions and are finally getting access to things we all have a basic right to (clean water, education, healthcare) because I am able to advocate, raise awareness or funds in some small way, then my life has achieved something that in the end means far more than having the track or album of the moment.

People aren't problems to be fixed. People are people, for us to walk alongside and journey with and help pick up the pieces with and, when they drop them again, to get back down and help them pick them up again. And that's real love - without condition and without expectation.

I have a particular style of writing and my voice sounds a particular way, which lends itself to a certain style.