[When I happen to] read interviews where people are such pros and they come out looking so good, [it comes off as] a little smug or something.

You don't want to be conscious of everything.

In Canada there's an extensive grant system that really allows people to make their work without having to suffer that much, and I'm staring to come around on that, that maybe people don't have to suffer. Maybe you can just not be unhappy and make beautiful music in Canada, maybe that's ok.

For as long as I can remember, I have written songs because I wanted to, because I was experiencing something that couldn't be described except through a sound.

Being alive and understanding that and making the decision to actually live take a lot of courage.

I have an identity crisis which is not resolved because I'm a dual citizen. My whole family is American, and I was born in India but I was raised in Canada. But all my extended family is American, I've held an American passport and I've spent my whole adult life in between New York and LA. So I feel like an American... and I also feel like a Canadian! I wish more people were dual citizens and then I wouldn't feel like such a freak.

Of course there are influences, of course there are things that are inspiring, but it's weird to think that I'm trying to keep a mental inventory of them and report them clearly to whomever might ask.