You know, people always ask me how I describe my music. First of all I tell them that's their job and then that also one day I hope to have things referred to as Martha Wainwright -esque.

I always seem to write personal songs; that's always been my go-to thing, to write about what I'm experiencing.

When I listen to my songs, they seem like pieces of music or art, like a painting that you look at. The reality is that, yes, when I wrote the songs upstairs or wherever, I was writing very specifically about my life or a specific subject matter that's very personal. I've never shied away from that. The vocals and the performance that come after the record, I don't think of that as confessional, but the core of the music is completely. It makes sense that people would see that as being the main thing. I guess not everyone is able to speak so candidly.

I think my mother was always worried about me when she was alive.

I've always been given respect because I'm kind of mannish, and I'm not a great beauty. I've never played the coquette card because I'm no good at it.

If there's one thing that differentiates me from the rest of my family it's the rock element. I hung out with friends who like punk rock a lot. Not getting a big record deal, and having a hard time for years, it means you have to prove yourself and scratch your way up from nothing.

It's better to embrace your roots than it is to fight it, because then you're just fighting something that you're not going to win. We're like a band of gypsies, and it makes sense.