Music comes from inside. It's not a style. It's just passion.
I'm really good at bringing out greatness - in anybody. I don't even have to be in the studio. What a gift to be able to help people bring out the best qualities in them.
I have to meet everybody I work with before I work with them. Before I say yes, I have to meet them, and then I take it from there. I don't care if you've had the best record or the worst. That doesn't matter to me. I don't care about that stuff.
For me, to have had an impact with anything that you've done, whether it's a painting, a photo, a poem, or something that you've created, just that experience is enormous. You don't get that all the time.
My process of songwriting comes from a very real place: a place that when you watch 'American Idol' - God bless it, it's probably an awesome experience that these people are having, but it's not a real one.
You create something in your bedroom or your house, and it's just a fun thing that you're doing. Then, all of a sudden, you hear that song that you started in your house, and it's on the radio. And people are now acknowledging it. It's just trippy. What a life.
I'm extremely hard to work with.
'American Idol' is a machine. It's a machine that's making a lot of money, that's selling a lot of product. It's 'American Marketing.'
I'm a songwriter, an artist, and a musician. I do not have to try to be that; I just am.
There's a lot of artists that are celebrities, not really artists.
You need a big team to support a career.
I'm just in tune to myself and what I need from the universe.
I'm great at working with people and collaborating. And if my biggest gift of all is that I'm really good at pulling things from people and helping them become better at what they're doing, I'm here, as I believe all of us are, to be of service.
I love Pink, and I love Christina Aguilera. Something about Christina always inspires me to do things that are really different.
I want to be a producer and not a songwriter.
I would love for Radiohead to give me a call and say, 'Hey, kid, we wanna see what it's like working with you. We want you to produce our next record.'
I love just helping people; that's what I'm good at.
I don't ever get too literal.
I'm not a children's songwriter. I'm not in that world.
A lot of people call me a 'machine,' and I don't think a lot of men or women operate the way I do.
