I have a tattoo on my foot that says 'it's a whale' in Japanese, because Japanese people kill whales. My stuffed whale was like most children's teddy bear. I took it with me everywhere. I slept with it. I couldn't live without my whale.

I moved out to L.A. when I was 17, dropped out of high school, and pursued a career in music.

The best songs for me come from the search for joy. You're in a negative place maybe, but you're still striving to improve yourself and find happiness.

It's very easy to fall back unto my old ways when I'm working a lot. It's important for me to continue to find solitude and peace in nature and escape the city and the industry as much as possible. That's where I reconnect and remind myself what I learned in that time in the woods when I was isolated and I recharge myself. If I don't have that, it would be really easy for me to fall apart again.

Since I started making music, it had always been for myself.

Putting out a debut album is a bit scary - I want it to be just right, so I took some extra time to finish it. Eminem's increased involvement has been such a blessing; I'm getting guidance from an artist I really admire and trust.

Alex [Da Kid] does have diversity, not just in what he produces, but what he hears. He has this knack for finding talented people.