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.

I write one step at a time, always finishing off the part I'm working on before even thinking about the next part. I need to hear it all together before deciding what goes next. I even mix before moving on...in other words, I write by recording.

I love the community and the entertainment too much. I'm used to it - it's what I saw first.

In the age of the mp3, you gotta make the package special, something that's worth owning.

I became very aware of what I was used to relying on, almost tricks. It's funny because I could feel myself creating a formula and sticking with it and I just told myself, 'That's not me, that's not really how I am, god forbid I have developed a formula - it's music; songwriting.' It's heretic, honestly, in the church of music, so I had to unwind a few tricks in order to get past it.

I dropped out of high school and I tried to go to community college for a little while. I can't be a student. I always hated that lifestyle.

As a teenager and a young adult, I never felt like my own story was interesting enough to tell, so I always wrote lyrics from someone else's perspective - told someone else's story.