As a new artist there's always outside influences trying to tell you how to make a song better for radio and how to do your hair.

I did not practice hours a day for eighteen years to have my success attributed to a myth.

I wanted to focus on songs that I was inspired by growing up. I love so many of them from the last 100 years, but I really wanted, for my first step forward, to choose material that has inspired me and got me into the world of musical theater.

I hate birthdays. It's so funny, people always come up to me, "Hey! It's my birthday!" But when it's my birthday, I don't want to talk about it, I don't wanna tell anybody.

I still like to keep all the love songs for the Grobanites, I like to make sure that they know those are just for them.

I'm always so pleased when I can get a song or be given a song that really speaks to me and I can interpret, but if given the opportunity to really write from the heart and try and bring some personality to whatever this genre would be, it was a great opportunity for me.

No matter who we are, no matter what our circumstances, our feelings and emotions are universal. And music has always been a great way to make people aware of that connection. It can help you open up a part of yourself and express feelings you didn't know you were feeling. It's risky to let that happen. But it's a risk you have to take-because only then will you find you're not alone.