I aim to write songs in a way that you don't have to have gone to Ghana to relate to it, you really just have to have a heart.

Sometimes touring can warp reality because you're never in one place long enough to get a feel for it. You don't interact with people long enough to know what real life is. That's why a lot of artists write songs about longing and missing people when they're on the road. I do my best to keep my mind open and I read a lot when I'm on tour, so I hope I have good things to write about. I'm constantly in the songwriting process.

My parents were always very supportive and accepting. They even shared my curiosity for life, or perhaps I theirs.

I get my most creative energy after a show, so I love to go back to the hotel and compose new material. I generally do it in a rush. I have to get it out, otherwise I can't sleep.

As an American citizen, one has to vote.

It was a very bizarre experience for me, to get the songs together, go in there, and try to deliver them as I would perhaps in a live setting. But I realized that I couldn't take on that coffeehouse style that I came from and go in there and burn it up.

What I get on a yoga mat, and from a yoga teacher, has been more beneficial onstage than any other workshop I've ever done. And it starts with that breath; it starts with getting out of my head and really just slowing the system down and being in a true present moment with each and every breath. That then allows me to be a more balanced and focused individual onstage.