I got to fall in love. I got to win a war. I got to write words that inspired a nation.

I have been working on this movie [Moana] since before Hamilton happened.

I came up with the "We are explorers," with sort of a counter-melody to [Opetaia Foa'i] melody. And so, it happened so organically, that it really, to me, is the most emblematic of our collaboration.

I just remembered when I was an adolescent girl wanting to leave my island and find my calling.

[Opetaia Foa'i] brought in the melody and the lyrics, but the lyrics were in Tokelauan, and so, we talked about what it could mean and whether this could be the ancestor song. So, I started writing English lyrics to sort of the same melody.

I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don't have to come from some far off place.

The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you.