I've been lucky to be able to make the records I've wanted to make. The record company has never pressured me to cut certain songs.

Denice Franke is a sensitive and compelling singer and songwriter.

The most important thing you can do as a performer is to be yourself, or be an onstage version of yourself. If youre not being true to yourself, and somebody likes that other version of you, youre kind of stuck.

Singing your own songs is all about individual expression

You can't second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you.

When someone tells me what he or she was doing the first time they heard a song of mine, then I've done a good job. If my song becomes about your life, then I'm successful.

Writin songs is like a mystery. The most difficult thing to do is have a good idea. If you have a decent idea, the songs are the easy part. Actually having something to say is the hard part. If you get an idea for a song, then it pulls you along. There are just some ideas that you get that are really hard to edit out; it's hard to stop thinking about some bad ideas. So you just finish it and you end up putting it on a record.