I realize that I really have to make music work for me as a career because I can't do anything else.

I always knew I wanted to do music, but it took me a long time to figure out how to exactly do that. With my first record deal, everything kinda fell apart. I wasn't ready for it, I didn't know how to handle the business side at all. I thought as soon as I got a record deal, everything would fall into place and I wouldn't have to really do any work anymore. I could just make music, and be successful. Well that was not the case and everything fell apart for a period of time.

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.

I love New York. I first came here with my Mom when I was in 9th grade. I took the subway for the first time and the doors closed between me and my Mom, and I was so scared. I could see her through the window and I didn't know what to do. I got off at the next stop and she caught up to me, but I couldn't stop crying.

Expectations are an evil thing.

I would say that nobody is going to work harder for your career than yourself - the one with the vision. No matter how many people you hire, nobody is going to get is as much as yourself does. So it's really important to be your own leader at all times and not hand it all off, otherwise the whole empire will fall apart.

I didnt have any knowledge of the music industry when I first got to L.A., and I really didnt know on a creative level what I wanted to sound like, so I had to do a lot of experimenting. It led to a spiral of depression and being broke.