In some ways, I feel like I've been such a dilettante for so many years, just picking up instruments and stretching myself so thin.

I can't work in Brooklyn. Unless I'm completely locked away in a studio, there's just too much distraction and stimulation.

I was a very good student until about sophomore year, and that's when I just became so disillusioned with the whole thing that I just became an awful student. I was still making good grades. But I was cutting class three days a week and faking papers that I got off the internet.

I think that sonically, music speaks volumes more than words do, and I have always thought that and will continue to think that for the rest of my life.

When a city is unstimulating, you get pretty isolated.

When I came back to America, I realized that world music is no joke, it really has a lot to it.

You always know when a real inspiration is behind the melody, arrangements, even lyrics. And I know that's really vague, but it's true.