Music is cyclical, but I've never thought of the music I make as being so off the wall or left field that it wouldn't always have an audience that would relate to it.
I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it's very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.
That's what I love about songwriting - that you can write something about your own experiences and think it's completely specific to you, and then people can take away a completely different meaning for themselves. I really love that. I think you've been successful at writing a song when it has a larger life than yourself.
I want my songs to be enjoyed by those who travel in a town bus and they should be played repeatedly in a tea shop.
I'm not a virtuoso on an instrument. You know, I'm not always singing in pitch. I laugh sometimes my way through the shows, but I'm an honest songwriter who's always tried to bring the audience with me on my journey in hopes that they see their own lives reflected in the work.
I'm writing music that people can grasp and hold on to... something that resonates. If you don't have that, then you have nothing.
As opposed to touring for three years and then going into the studio and writing an album, I think this record is representative of a lot of everyday people.
That's all I ever wanted to do: put out music from the heart that people could relate to.
I like all forms of movies. I'm a movie geek, so I watch all kinds of films, but - and I read all kinds of things, too. But the poetry that speaks to me the most directly will contain mundane things, will contain details.
The artists that I relate to and love the most are the ones where I can listen to the record, and I can know them better, and for me, that's writing it.
When a piece of art gets really specific is usually when anybody can relate to it.
There's another way of making music, by touching the lives and feelings of ordinary people.
We didn't get to see a lot of movies in my house growing up, so the first time I got to go to the movies - I think it was 'E.T.' - I was like, 'Oh my God, somebody else gets my imagination!'
I don't have to spend a lot of time figuring out, 'Gosh, I wonder how guys feel,' because most every piece of art I look at invites me into that experience.
I want to be an artist that everyone can relate to, that's young, happy and fun.
There's no hierarchy in suffering. I think songs that are transcendent are the ones where everyone can feel something from it, you know?
That's a defining moment, there, when someone plays an instrument that everyone relates to around the planet.
I like art with a visible string to the world.
I'm inspired by my surroundings. That's why I create dresses or videos around simple everyday things! I also love playing with nostalgic things from my childhood like cartoons. I like my art to trigger some sort of memory from my viewers, something they can relate to.
I never want to lose sight of my roots... A lot of artists want the riches and the fame. I want to tell stories you can put into the context of your life.
