Every artist, to me, should know why they're doing what they're doing. You shouldn't create simply because it sounds good to you. That's not a real response to me.

I love to be challenged. I like to be in places where I don't have easy ways out; it's either I do it or I don't and, in my mind, I don't really have the option of don't.

I have to dig from myself versus digging from something that I like. Digging from something you like is easy whereas from your inside, it's a totally different ballgame altogether. That's not a matter between picking red and blue, it's not like that. It's a decision, it's a choice and, like I've said in the past, it's like jumping off a cliff and hoping you survive the jump.

There's a lot of failing. Failure to me is a lot more important than success because the learning from it is so important. You have to be willing to fail, to step outside of yourself and you can't have a comfort zone. I had to learn that and I'm still learning that.

I want the people making this music to stick to what they know in terms of ensuring that they remain true to that and the authenticity. Don't be afraid to be original and explore of course, but don't necessarily abandon certain standards in order to try to appeal to other people.

Happy is already a state, so if you create something that's happy... OK, wonderful... but when you're in a place of distress or trauma, there are so many more directions that can go in to me. Something that's happy can only truly go in one direction, whereas with something like distress, anger, trauma, there are so many more interesting possibilities that those emotions can create.

It's like, say you're a dancer and you've been studying modern dance your whole life so you're used to a certain aesthetic of music or motivation or influence, if I send you something that you're totally not used to or don't understand, rarely does that work. On the average, you're not gonna feel that and it won't be you. You have to be in there.