I always saw songwriting as the top of the heap. No matter what else you were going to do creatively-and there were a lot of choices-writing songs was king.

Those things interest me a lot in songwriting - the human nature of how people think, and the muck that we wind up in.

I'm realistic. Getting to everybody is not the goal here. The people you can affect in any way - that's who you want to get to.

The trouble, dollIs not moving mountains, butDigging the ground that you're on

I do look at songwriting as a lot of work. I don't overintellectualize music as a special medium that only some people deserve to do. I think it's something you do if you put the work in.

I think that these are different times, and different things are available to artists, and certain things have become passé. You've already seen the outcome of a lot of things that seemed to have a lot of potential. We've already heard that, and I can't tell you if it made a difference or not. But we already know that artists can do that, and they shouldn't feel threatened by doing it. They're probably not going to change the world. They're going to change a few people's perspectives and maybe make somebody's day at times, if they can.

My songs have always had hope and perseverance in them - I never write songs that have no escape hatch, no positivity.