Playing to bigger audiences at festivals got me in the mindset of writing music that I would sing to a crowd.

There's this corporate machine giving us a chance to access radio - though there's no guarantee.

Success will come. Or it won't. But I think you can only make a go at it in a big way by fully being yourself and taking risks. People can feel risks.

You know how some trees have those ear mushrooms that just grow off, and you could live on one of those mushrooms and not realize that there was stacks and stacks of others? That's how I describe music scenes in New York. That's one of the trippiest things about living here - just how many parallel universes there are that you can be completely unaware of.

Do not be precious about your music within your own world. Try everything you want to try; just because it exists doesn't mean it's done.

I saw this wide-eyed girl with big ears and a pink nose who's too excited. I wanted that part of myself to sing lead.

Everyone in our generation lives in a world where you're surrounded by all sorts of music all the time. People's tastes are made of combinations of genres.