I was living in the U.K. I was back in New Zealand for the New Zealand Music Awards, which is like our annual New Zealand GRAMMYs.

"The River" [song] is also, yes, very metaphorical. Rivers are cleansing. As long as human beings have been on the Earth we've used rivers to cleanse ourselves. And, for me, the lyrics "something in the river," I think is - well, the river is a metaphor for where I was at the time.

A few people said to me on the UK tour 'that feeling you're feeling is natural. Everyone feels nerves. But, you've got to use that to your advantage. You've got to use that nervous energy and pull it into your performance’. And, I'd never thought of that before.

I think love is one that can definitely make you go crazy, and it's almost like love can induce mental illness in a lot of people, or bring it out worse. It makes people make crazy decisions.

I don't want to say I drank the Kool-Aid because I'm definitely not religious and I don't buy into any religion at all. I'm anti, because I don't like anyone being discriminated against. But, I do think that I very much needed a sunny place for me to feel happier, and living in LA was almost like that sort of cleansing experience like I was being baptized in a river.

I feel like in every song I write, I always write a little darker bit.

I don't want anyone to think that I've been lost to California.