I want to be like Ben Folds. Everyone loves his music, but you could be sitting next to him on a plane and never know it." "I would much rather people know my music than know my name.

I started taking piano lessons when I was 8 and I wrote my first song shortly after. Music was really important in my family. My grandma was a professional violin player and my parents first met when my dad was giving my mom guitar lessons.

I've never really presumed to know what my fans want or like. When I'm making the music, I just chase whatever I find interesting that day and luckily there are people who find it interesting as well.

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.

I think the biggest thing is that I have fun with the fans on Twitter and Instagram and at the show. It's a fun time to be able to communicate with all the different types of social media stuff.

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.