It's always weird when I meet people who don't know how to crack crabs open and eat them the right way. I take a lot of pride in my crab-eating ability.

I'm sort of a traditionalist usually. I love old soul music and The Beatles; I realized I was sort of trying to make music sometimes that fit into an era that's gone.

I like to talk to the crowd on stage. I don't like going to a concert and feeling like the people on stage don't care whether or not I'm there.

When I was first starting out, I drove myself around the country in my Honda Civic, playing anywhere that would have me. This is a chance to strip the songs down to their roots and let the audience hear them the way I write them.

I used to play trumpet when I was a kid, and then I got braces, and I couldn't really play it anymore, so sometimes I wish I could still play that; I think it's a great instrument, so maybe one of these days I'll pick it back up.

I don't need to get paid. I just wanna open. I just wanna get in front of new people.

To me, there are 3 parts of the album process: writing, recording, and my favorite part: getting to sing the songs with the fans every night.