I can't sit and compare my trouble to Brian Wilson but I came from a blue-collar family of fishermen. Music was an escape and a way for me to dream of better things and a better place to be. Let's just say I was an insecure, scared kid.

A lot of subjects blend into the same thing: intolerance. When you're a little kid, you don't know that it's going to get better. Your life experience hasn't told you that. I want to protect those people. I want to send out a message and at least try to get that across.

I brought in producer Johan Carlsson [Ariana Grande, One Direction, Flo Rida] and asked, "Can you make this better?" And he did.

When I say something funny in a newspaper and I meant it to be funny, it doesn't read that way.

Jazz is like a great blues band that fell down the stairs

As I look back, I understand what [the record company] was getting at. They were trying to market a record and make it as commercially acceptable as possible. It hurt me and my credibility with critics.

It turns out that I'm far too schizophrenic musically for people to categorize me. I think people judge me a lot before they ever really know who I am.