There were so many different influences in my life: being half Mexican and half Irish, growing up an only child of immigrant parents, being bullied in school, feeling alienated and lonely, this undertone of darkness. All that culminated and came out in my music and made it different.

Its always my goal to raise the bar with each record I put out.

Certain social situations make me feel like a square peg in a round hole. Realising you can connect to the human race through song makes me feel less alien.

The reason I moved to Nashville was because I was reading biographies of a lot of my country music heroes, and I thought it would be better to actually go where the history was, as opposed to just reading about it.

I like to work with different musicians and producers to change the feels of every release.

My dad was a bass player in a Latino band when I was growing up. So we always had musical instruments in our basement.

The song "This Is Not Surreal," was inspired by a painter I love, Frida Kahlo. She really did suffer for her art. She speaks to me. She was brutally honest in her work. At that time in fine art, you really didn't see many female artists expressing that. She was such a strong female presence, and I really look up to her. She had a lot of physical pain.