I don't listen to my own stuff unless I've been drinking a lot.

Life is a musical influence in my experience. But as far as actual music and actual bands, uh, I'll just look at my little collection here. Let's see. Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, U2, The Talking Heads, Prince and the Revolution, Michael Jackson's Thriller was a huge one.

I feel like everybody knows the world isn't the happiest, most peaceful place. And though everybody has an idea of what's wrong, we're not changing it for the better.

There are bands now, and for years, that called themselves emo. I never followed that stuff.

Trying to be creative, yet having to deal with the day to day - I mean, there is a lot of stuff to deal with. Like sitting at the computer and sending emails.

It's important for me to say something, and with wisdom if I can. I don't think there's anything wrong with just going out there and having fun and goofing around. I want to experiment with that too. But yeah, I feel like I have a responsibility to produce something hopeful, and maybe inspirational to people. When people come up to be and tell me how my music has changed their lives, that only encourages me to take it more seriously. Sometimes I get annoyed with myself for getting too serious, but that's just what I need to do.

I don't have a label, I don't have a manager, I'm doing everything myself.