I have a great work ethic - from watching Lucille Ball, not necessarily my own family.
I don't write songs, play music and tour, really, for anyone else but myself. It's something that I have to do to stay alive.
I've always tried to get around writing love songs, I guess because I've always had a hard time saying, 'I love you.'
When something is coming off of a Neve board and being laid down on tape, it's like a warm blanket for the brain. When you're working in a digital form, it's so harsh; it's almost painful. Your ears get more fatigued if you're mixing all day.
I'm constantly dodging people in L.A. There are some people I don't ever wanna see again, but if you live where you grew up, you're running into people constantly.
I don't feel unlucky in love anymore, and it's not all emo. It's a scary place to be in when you're like: 'What am I supposed to write about now? I don't feel heartbroken, so now what?'
That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That's the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That's you on the cover. If it sucks, it's your fault.
After Rilo Kiley broke up and a few really intense personal things happened, I completely melted down. It nearly destroyed me. I had such severe insomnia that, at one point, I didn't sleep for five straight nights.
The Rilo Kiley song 'A Better Son/Daughter' is my most requested song - especially for people who are at the age I was when I wrote it. It's sort of a mid-twenties lament.
I love kids, but there's always time for them later. You can always adopt; you can have a puppy. The songs are my children.
I grew up on Loretta Lynn and Dusty Springfield. I remember lying about it; it wasn't cool to listen to country when I was 12.
I write music, really, to make myself feel better.
When I first started touring, we had a crappy van, and we would all share rooms. So for many years as a grown adult woman, I would share a bed with a bandmate, whether it would be Jimmy Tamborello from the Postal Service or Pierre De Reeder from Rilo Kiley, just a pillow barrier between us sleeping on the same bed.
It sounds cheesy, but music has saved me in a lot of ways. If I had just continued acting, I don't think I would be alive.
I am a child of digital generation. I have done most of the records with Rilo Kiley on computers, on Pro Tools or other digital programs.
I think you kind of lose the human aspect when you make things too perfect.
I've always just had sort of a dark take on life, I suppose, and hopefully, the music transcends that in a way.
When I was a teenager, I went to Europe on a backpacking trip by myself, and I met a woman who was following Sebadoh. It was the early 1990s, and that was my introduction to indie rock.
It's funny how a song can start in your mind, and then when it goes through all the filters, it ends up in a totally different spot.
My parents divorced when I was 3 years old. They had a lounge act in Las Vegas, where I was born. The band broke up and the marriage dissolved, and my mother, my sister and I moved to Southern California. And I didn't see my dad a lot growing up; he was on the road a lot. I'd see him every couple years.
