Anyone who is awake and aware knows that these quote-unquote bathroom bills or any legislation discriminating against LGBTQ citizens is horrible.
The easiest way I can describe what makes a pop song a pop song is that it's a song you want to hear over and over.
I grew up on Raffi. That was my first impression of what a rock star was.
When you constantly revisit things, it's hard to know if you're freezing in time or if you're a brilliant adult who's working through it. I think about that in therapy, talking about the same things over and over again.
It just seems like the most fun thing in the world. I've never met people who have kids who haven't looked me in the eye and been like, 'It's the greatest thing that's ever happened.'
'Glee' is one of the very few mainstream outlets that is giving a voice to communities of people that don't necessarily have a loud voice, specifically the gay community. It gives a really positive and forward statement.
The first band I was ever in, I played guitar. We did Gary Glitter and Green Day covers at the time. We were called Fizz. I have no idea why we picked that. We were, like, 12 years old.
For me, a perfect pop song is something like 'This Year,' by the Mountain Goats.
When I was growing up, it was a lot of punk and hardcore music going on in legion halls and firehouses, and we'd play those shows, and it was very Jersey. It was very suburban, and there's just a great pride there.
To grow up five miles outside of the greatest city in the world is a bizarre experience.
I went to high school in New York City. So, I grew up in New Jersey my whole life, and I was watching all the people and all the kids that I met there become so jaded.
I've gone down to the Jersey Shore every summer since I was born. It's like a second home, and Asbury Park is like the capital - it's the center of all of it. Musically, it's incredible.
My parents had a house on the Jersey shore - I grew up right there, going down there every summer and living there. It is home for me.
All I have to do to continue to make things work is make great records, and that's more important than having a crazy master plan.
I've noticed that a lot of people in film always seem interested in music videos, like it's some, like, really exciting thing they've always wanted to do or something.
It's a really natural thing: The people closest in your life are the people you want the first opinions from. At the end of the day, if you're not trying to impress those people first, then I think there's something wrong there.
The heart and soul of pop is newness, excitement, innovation.
The music business is filled with some nice people but a lot of strange people, so when you come across someone who's really genuine at an environment as bizarre as an awards show, you typically gravitate to them.
My grandparents got out of Poland right before the Holocaust and came here, and the only thing that mattered was surviving.
I feel very, very, very intent on only releasing things that I believe are fully worthy.
