Yoga has had a profound effect on my songs and performances. I don't meditate in the traditional style of sitting and doing nothing. I prefer the zen of paying attention, such as the meditation of yoga flow, or walking meditations. I also consider singing, surfing and gardening to very meditative.

Genre-spanning is the effort to make the live show interesting. It's also a great way to challenge yourself as a writer.

By the end of the writing process, which is about 80 songs per album, I look at the material and think, what's going to make a difference in someone's life.

For the first thirty years of my life I exercised very little, and I smoked cigarettes for ten or twelve years, and I ate junk food. And I began to see some elders in my community's health decline, and I didn't want that to happen to me.

I love eating healthy and doing the yoga thing, because I think I'm going to live to a thousand doing so. And that's because I don't want to leave here so soon. I want to stick around as long as I can, but I know that's not going to be the case. We're all going.

I discovered at 18 that singing and songwriting was my strength. I decided that it was closest to my heart and if I pursued it then there would be no competition. I would just live my life being myself and living my dream.

And if you're singing to someone, or if they're singing along, and suddenly you're in harmony, then it's actually making a huge difference on a subatomic level that is actually transforming the world.