With songwriting I spend a lot of time living life, accruing all these experiences, journaling, and then by the time I get to the studio I'm teeming with the drive to write.
I grew up in a very masculine environment. So I was around a lot of men, my brothers and their friends. There was just a lot of guys around.
As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I'll fit whatever I'm trying to say around a melody.
The ego is a fascinating monster.
My parents offered me the idea of ceilinglessness. There was no limit in terms of what was possible; no messages sent to me to say that I couldn't do anything.
I'll be writing songs till I die. There's just no question.
I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.
A lot of preconceived notions that I had about fame and status and money and joy and pain, and all of these things that I thought I knew, I didn't.
In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.
I think some people think I'm a smarty-pants. Some people think I'm intense, some people think I'm super-esoteric and nuts.
I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.
When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.
I like to make pasta with puttanesca sauce and arugula salad.
Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.
Your political views really denote your spiritual views.
And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.
I try to keep a low profile in general. Not with my art, but just as a person.
I know that I'm deeply, spiritually, profoundly philosophical and I also know that I'm about the flakiest person you're gonna meet.
But I love to entertain. My vocation is to accrue all these experiences, to write about them, to get them out of my system, to not get sick, and then to share them publicly.
And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they're here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.
