I always knew I wanted to be a musician, and I always knew I wanted to write, 'cause the people I was listening to all wrote. I never thought it was an option to sing anyone else's songs.

Melody is the first thing that comes to me when I'm songwriting. I learned piano classically first, and then I went into soul, and so melody has always been the first. It's so important.

Any song I have to work on longer than a day, I just leave it. It's not gonna work. Everything that's good is really instant.

I wanted to make an album that melodically people can connect to; something that reflects our times and the kinds of difficulties we face.

The focus is on singer/songwriters now rather than huge shows. I mean, of course there's always a place for that too.

It would be sad if we lost our instinct and our courage to love and protect.

I was inspired by people like Joni Mitchell and Carole King and Stevie and "Storytellers." People that could really change the world with their lyric, no matter who sung the song, they had still been the source of that message. So that's what I really aim for.