I always believe that every song tells a story, so the last thing I want to do is edit out like the meat of the story. I would pick songs based off a), whether I felt like I could do anything with them, and b) whether I felt like I could keep the story intact. And then you sit in with one of the piano players and one of the vocal coaches and kind of work out your arrangements that way.

I'm admittedly a record guy. Singles and I are a different beast. I'm definitely an overall picture thinker.

If you wanna know the truth, you make or break my day. If you wanna know the truth, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I knew at the time my haircut was pretty damn god-awful, so I was just hoping that I wasn't one of the joke ones. And they put me through to Hollywood and I thought, "Well okay, maybe I'm still one of the joke ones but at least I'm not terrible?"

There's definitely a visual aspect and an emotional aspect to a song. And that harks back, for me, to theater.

I have to be involved. Whether it's me writing by myself or with other people, I definitely want to have my hand in the creative process. That's part of why I got into music in the first place.

I'm competitive to a fault, so of course every week I'm just like, "I want to win, I want to do great."