I do not think good art comes from comfort. While from a humanistic standpoint I would have much rather been at my home that I own, surrounded by friends and family and controlling my environment completely.

I want to talk about things that are tangible and real to me, but I also want to do them in a way that's poetic and artistic.

I'm not an L.A. guy. I don't take meetings - you know what I mean? I don't really know how to interact very well with people in L.A. because everybody's got an agenda and everybody's like, "What do you do?" "Where are you going?" Or it's like, "What do you know?" And I'm not on a grind - I was there to make music and to meet people but I wasn't hustling for anything.

I really wanted to get that dynamic on the record onto people and let them know it wasn't just a simple strumming along the guitar type of thing without ramming it down their throats so I kind of went the opposite way and sang some of the songs more quietly which allowed for the louder parts to sound as though there were more. It was the only way singing those songs made sense to me.

Music is a self-propelling thing. You can not rely on anybody but yourself.

I'm very ambitious, musically - I want to create great things, not mediocre work.

When I started out making music I thought it was about thrills and adding layers, but I realized I want to focus on saying the most with the least.