Writing songs about it is a really useful way for me to love New York more, and stay observing it, and not just zone it out.

The first song I wrote, in fifth grade, was totally ripped from Jeffrey Lewis. My aunt's boyfriend gave me bass lessons, and I played drums for a year in sixth grade. Around seventh grade, I got a guitar and forgot everything else.

I started going to rock shows at a really young age, and seeing other young people make music definitely influenced me.

When I was younger, my view of New York was really wide-eyed and excited. I've lived here all my life.

I'm trying to do what Frank O'Hara did and remind myself there there's a lot of good stuff. I write about New York for my own mental health.

You meet a lot of people in New York who are different than you, and have different stories, so I see everyone as super individual.

I was thinking about New York and realized how much I hate walking around in the winter and how much I dread getting on the train.