CLAIRO

I never want to be one of those artists who feels untouchable and extraordinary. I have to be genuine.

My teacher wanted me to do 'Hot Cross Buns,' but all I wanted to learn was 'Island in the Sun' by Weezer.

Before 'Pretty Girl' was released, I didn't really talk about my YouTube channel or show anyone. I didn't expect any of my videos to blow up like 'Pretty Girl' did.

I'm still not entirely sure how 'Pretty Girl' blew up the way it did. It wasn't really meant to. The song was originally meant for a compilation tape for a magazine called 'The Le Sigh', and I made the video in about 30 minutes.

I'm someone that needs to talk about my problems. I call my mom every single day at school just to vent about random stuff. Singing is the same thing.

I want everyone who's listening to know who I am and not just see me as this singer. I want them to feel connected to my story.

I felt like I needed to be a 'pretty girl' for someone else. I felt like I needed to change a lot about who I actually was to be perfect for them instead of just being who I am genuinely.

When you're just making something in your room, you're not thinking that this box with a screen is gonna make you famous. You don't think you're putting yourself out there, because you don't see it on the other side.

I was like this weird, edgy 10-year-old. I was figuring out who I was, obviously at the worst time. I had braces and bangs, and it was a nightmare.

At the end of the day, when people say, 'Oh, she's an industry plant,' I'm like, 'No, I just have representation, like every single other artist you listen to.' I'm not the first person to get a manager.

The fact that there has to be a man behind my success when I genuinely have worked so hard is frustrating.

My stuff gets in a lot of vaporwave Facebook groups for some reason.

It's crazy to feel like you have to sell yourself and just, like, be almost... marketable. I'd never thought of it that way.

I remember the first album I really completely geeked out over was The Shins' 'Wincing The Night Away.' That album was everything to me.

I bought this Oxygen midi synth from a flea market in Boston for $10. And then I found a cord in my house that fit it, and so I just started using that to do synth stuff in GarageBand.

My live show experience has not been good. It's just because I haven't had a band or anything. I played a show in Santa Ana that I'm just not proud of at all. It came out of the blue, and I kind of freaked out and took the opportunity because it was the biggest thing I've ever been offered.

'Better' is one of the first real steps I've made into 'pop music,' and this collab feels like a match made in Heaven!

I've always wanted to be a PC Music girl, like Hannah Diamond or SOPHIE.

We all kind of dreamed about being musicians, but the narrative around being a musician is it'll never happen to you. It's not something that just happens - one in a million shot - all those things that just make you feel like it'll never happen.

It keeps me from getting too overwhelmed about the industry when I can just do my math homework.

YouTube was always a secret space for me. I'd randomly post videos of me singing with guitar, or sometimes I'd post some half-finished film projects I'd made.

I'm a producer at heart.

My friends started making music, and then I started making covers because I was like, 'I don't have anything to write, but I like music.' So I would just cover Frank Ocean songs.

I make a point to tweet out really funny comments I get on YouTube videos. I have the most ridiculous ones.

I think my parents are the first influence on me music-wise. My dad was into Motown and soul, and my mom was into British '80s pop, like The Trashcan Sinatras. I grew up on that. It was great. They were the first people to really bring music into my life.