The blogosphere gives me my life, I am fortunate to have developed relationships with great websites who allow me to reach a whole ton of new people everyday.

I've basically been able to do everything, I basically run my own career and the decisions I make - whether it's how I'm gonna roll out music, how I'm gonna play on tours, different strategies for releasing and marketing things - and that comes from being college educated and someone who's interested in that side of the business rather than only the music. If anything I think that's where the biggest direct influence comes from.

I like to write from my life and the relationships that make it up. I think its important to use music to change people's moods. I try to write my story in a way that people can take for themselves and their own life.

I'm only concerned with making music that I love and that my fans will respond to. I am happy to see other really good young artists able to flourish and pursue their careers.

My fans are the only people who will be with me forever, all else comes and goes.

I get to focus on something I love to do 24-hours a day rather than trying to squeeze it in between midterms, or even during my normal workday. When I was at Google it was like you wake up at 7 and then you get home by 7 and you start your second job of music. So now I get to focus all my efforts on music, travel and play shows and do all of this stuff. That's the difference - That's all my life is, all day.

People don't realize that there's no label and everything is self-financed and we make do and do our own thing. I was just happy to do my first video, I thought it was a fun experience.