Hearing my songs in public freaks me out a bit. There was one restaurant I really liked in L.A. but I had to stop going there when they started playing my music. It felt kinda awkward.

I really like all music but mostly Country older R&B and the good classic rock.

My first two records are so simply constructed. The reason isn't because I wanted to make simple music. It's because I don't really have the chops.

What I was going for in the first two albums I didn't necessarily achieve. Because I was young and because it was my first time out. And the second album was such a 'quickie' sort of 'Let's just get it over with!' But the kind of music I make there's a lot of subtlety in it. And I think it takes a couple of listens to actually really get it.

I'm really an inner spirit that only makes itself known through the music. A lot of people think I'm an introvert or quiet and moody. I've even heard some people say that there's a certain mystery or darkness about me. I'm not that way. I'm just really into what I do.

Music will always be my No. 1 passion but I don't have to be doing it professionally. It's not really about that for me anymore. I feel like I don't have to look at it as a career. I can just rest in it and just be.

In some ways my gift for music and writing was born out of tragedy really and loss.

But I did go to music really early on even when I was 4 or 5 I was responding to music probably in ways other kids were not.

Very much like that and very much a loner do you know and I didn't fit really into sport or all kind of group activities as a kid I couldn't find a niche. And music was not really part of the kind of village curriculum it would you know.

I love rock-n-roll. I think it's an exciting art form. It's revolutionary. Still revolutionary and it changed people. It changed their hearts. But yeah even rock-n-roll has a lot of rubbish really bad music.

In middle school I really didn't have music but in high school I remember taking a lot of choir and drama.

It's been a transformative period and I really wanted to make music from what I've experienced.

The Christian community latched onto a lot of my music because there were a lot of things about my struggle they related to. But I didn't really want to come out and be identified as a Christian because I didn't want to be a hypocrite because my life wasn't right.

It's a really unfair world because life is where I am all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.

Music for me is an emotional thing and it really does make me happy. It's not a tool for me to get fame or see my face in the papers or anything like that. It's about the fact that I really do enjoy it.

It's really hard for me to sometimes put myself out there like 'Hey how do you feel about making music together?' because maybe I'm afraid of rejection or I don't want to put anybody out. It's the Southerner in me like 'I don't mean to bother you but do you mind making a song?'

I love sad songs. They say so much. I love country music but even the happy songs sound really sad.

Starting out really punk came from not knowing any better and listening to music like that not knowing how to play music - well still not knowing how to play music.

The problem for me still today is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I'm not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage.

It was stumbling on to really the bible of the blues you know and a very powerful drug to be introduced to us and I absorbed it totally and it changed my complete outlook on music.

The thing about my music is there really is no point.

People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever and it's just the opposite really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show and smiley.

Well I'll tell you I don't know how aware teenagers are of me. I think it really depends on the teenager and how well-versed in music they are and what kind of music they like.

Before I settled on music I wanted to be an archaeologist an astronaut all sorts of really diverse things.