I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15. I think what mainly sparked my interest was just the fact that I grew up listening to Cheryl King, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and was just always inspired by that sort of organic art, and organic songs and just very natural songwriting that came out of some of those artists.

I knew that going on 'One Tree Hill' was going to be an incredible vehicle for the record. What is amazing about it is that my role on the show is, you know, basically playing a musician, and all the songs she plays are off my record.

My main goal as a songwriter is to make something that inspires people. To write things about my life that people can relate to. Whether it's a whole record or just one song for someone, I hope it can do that for them. Knowing that I have the ability to do that is inspiring to me.

Believing in yourself and what you do is so important. It took me a long time to find that confidence. If you're an artist and you're taking risks, then you're doing something right if some people don't get it.

More than anything I want to get up there and hang out with the audience, make everybody feel like it's fun and they're involved and are just, like, friends hanging out in somebody's living room. I went to see Carole King on her 'Living Room' Tour, and that's the kind of feeling I'm aiming for.

My music is the chicken soup kind. I want people to get a good feeling in their soul from these songs. Roots rock, heartland rock...whatever you want to call it is OK with me.

I know who I am as an artist and I know what my sound is, but I wanted to know what I could do in order to take it to that next level. So the experiences I had last year of moving to California and traveling to places like Rome and Nicaragua where I met a lot of people just had a really big impact in my life.