My first concert was Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey.
I'd really like to work with Gwen Stefani and Cee Lo.
I know nothing about hip-hop... There's only so many times you can grab your crotch and prance around stage. I'm gonna get slammed now for this.
I think being collaborative is definitely more natural for people who are minorities in any sense - so people who aren't, like, white male artists - because we don't have the privilege to create art and work alone, usually.
It's like if every single male artist dressed up as farmers. In every video they were on a farm. Whether it was Jason Derulo or Oasis, they're always on a tractor, they're always surrounded by sheep and always in boots. And all the songs are about enjoying farming, and this is all you've had for 10 years - you'd think you were going mad.
I think there are a lot of dudes out there that are runnin' out of gas. Some of my favourites, even ones I look up to... I haven't been fully impressed with their dynamics of makin' a body of work that makes sense to me.
Some of my favorite songs--and I don't know if this is the right terminology--are white-boy classics.
We've had real strong aboriginal male artists who've crossed over to the mainstream who have toured the U.K., who have been a massive influence on myself and many, many communities around Australia.
I think the defect actually lies with male artists. Male artists often border on idiocy, while it's important for a woman not to be that way, if possible. Women are outstanding in science, just as good as men.
I have so many playlists full of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown.
Favorite country singer of all time... Hank Williams... Well, then there's Willie Nelson. Can I have three? I can't do one. Then if I have three, I'll need five. Hank Williams for sure. Willie Nelson. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.
I naturally gravitated first to R&B and pop: Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle.
I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 15. I think what mainly sparked my interest was just the fact that I grew up listening to Cheryl King, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and was just always inspired by that sort of organic art, and organic songs and just very natural songwriting that came out of some of those artists.
I was lucky to grow up in the '90s, when we had just as many strong female artists as male artists. That's a world I would like to live in again.
Nobody asks me about what male musicians I think about; I only ever get asked about females.
A good artist's always got his hand in his zipper.
When I criticize Joseph Beuys or Francis Bacon, nobody calls those opinions anti-male. Putting female artists or their subject matter off-limits is itself sexist and limiting.
Oh, my gosh, I'm listening to everything from Bruno Mars to Beyonce, to Arthea Franklin and Patti LaBelle.
Aggressive female icons have been chronically demeaned... It's fine for male artists to be angry - they're encouraged to outwardly express their aggression - but women? I've been painted as an aggressive Feminazi because I'm blunt, stubborn, independent, forthright.
I love Marty Robbins, I love Glen Campbell, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline.
People think because it's photography it's not worth as much, and because it's a woman artist, you're still not getting as much - there's still definitely that happening. I'm still really competitive when it comes to, I guess, the male painters and male artists. I still think that's really unfair.
There are female artists I can look at that I find more in common with than the male artists, because they're blending the pop, dance and theatricality... but currently there aren't a lot of guys who go there.
There are so many different musicians I look up to for different reasons - from hip-hop to rock to pop. Some are Alanis Morissette, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne.
My dad was a huge country music fan, but he also had a band and he sang. So he'd listen to a lot of music and the songs that he'd learn for the band were more from the male artists. So my earliest country memories were Waylon Jennings, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck even.
All the musicians I loved growing up were men. I loved Leonard Cohen, Mick Jagger. I loved Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Even today, I love Van McCann from Catfish and the Bottlemen and Matt Healy from The 1975.
