Obviously, it was a big life change for me and quite a shock to suddenly have these songs I'd written in my bedroom as a far-too-intense teenager all over the airwaves and see my face on buses, especially in a small country like New Zealand, but at the same time it was such a thrill and an honour knowing that my music was reaching people.

Obviously, it was a big life change for me and quite a shock to suddenly have these songs I'd written in my bedroom as a far-too-intense teenager all over the airwaves and see my face on buses, especially in a small country like New Zealand, but at the same time it was such a thrill and an honour knowing that my music was reaching people.

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

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.

At sixteen I was like: "I need to get an album out now!" - even though I was only sixteen. I was always in a little bit of a rush to be an adult.

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!

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