You're creating an intimacy that everybody feels, that it's their experience, not yours. I'll never introduce a song and say, now this song is about 'my' broken heart.

So much of what we do as artists is a combination of personal experience and imagination, and how that all creeps into your work is not so linear.

I mean, I don't think I would call Claus to do an album of big band tunes. You know, just like arrangers write for the artist they have in mind; you have to keep in mind if you're going to work with Claus Ogerman. You invite him to do what he does.

I've sung a lot of emotional songs, but when you're writing it's very difficult to decide what to reveal.

I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it.

But the greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out. You want the listener to find the song on their own. If you give too much away, it takes away from the imagination.

I think that I was being much more uptight about those things before. I feel like I really don't have to prove anything at this point other than what I'm doing.