It's really hard to be on stage and packing your gear when people who just saw you play are in the room, because they all just want to talk to you.

I feel like gender lines are changing. A couple of years ago, it wasn't nearly as OK for guys to like girly-sounding music. But all of a sudden a lot of my guys friends who would like have been really disdainful of female singers are way more accepting.

Sometimes you find people who are magnetic, but once they get in front of a camera, they freak out and get weird.

I listen to a lot of medieval music.

Especially with music, people want confidence.

I definitely see the voice as an instrument: It makes great drums, great synth pads, great everything. Vocals can be so many things, like, "Hey, I'm Michael Jackson, and this is my iconic voice," or a choir of people sounding like Mozart's Requiem. Mariah Carey is my favorite singer because her voice sounds utterly groundless. It's not even a human voice; it almost sounds mechanical.

The most valuable live thing for me is when people look like they're having a good time.