It's funny: the one time I got star-struck was when I met Snoop Dogg. I gave him a hug and said, 'I love you, man.'
I feel like kids are getting more and more used to communicating through a glass screen than they are face-to-face, and that worries me a little.
There were times when I was terrified to go to school because it felt like a jail sentence.
It's the meanest thing to abuse your power as a songwriter. To write pointedly about someone... it's kind of unfair to use them. They can't answer you or have a rebuttal.
During 'Torches,' I was more concerned with communicating the spirit of the song than the actual lyrics.
'Supermodel' was a hard record for me; it was an emotional record to write. I was purging a lot of stuff with that album, and I think the one thing I didn't really consider, that I'd be supporting it for two years and living in that state of mind every night.
If I'm with people who are really positive and go with the flow, that's when the best ideas come out for me.
I've written so many songs that are hopeful - songs that are, like, about an old man that gives all his possessions away because he wants to help people. I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' just to tell a different type of story.
I worked odd jobs delivering pizza, folding chairs, telemarketing, selling kitchen cutlery door to door.
I remember, in middle school, I went to four different schools. That was a rough patch. But it's also what shaped me as a person.
The jingles saved my life. When I got hired to do that, I was on top. I finally was making a living doing what I loved. Before that, it was so bleak; it got so dark in L.A. I was 25, been living there for seven years trying to make it, and getting really close to getting signed with different bands and as a solo artist only to have my hopes dashed.
Once I write something, I never try to write that same style again, because I get very schizophrenic musically.
There are career waiters in Los Angeles, and they're making over $100,000 a year.
In Morocco, a Muslim country, I got to hear the call to prayer five times a day. At first it felt kind of scary, kind of dangerous, because of the propaganda towards anything Muslim in the U.S. subconsciously coming out in me. By the end of the trip, it was so beautiful, and then not hearing it when I got back to L.A. really threw me off.
The phrase 'pumped up kicks,' man, I was excited when I came up with that.
When I was 21, I was in a pretty serious band, and we almost got signed - went to New York, showcased, all that - but didn't end up getting signed, and we broke up. I went back to the drawing board; I really took a hit from that whole experience.
That's how life is: there are peaks and valleys in life, and that's how I like to write songs.
I think that there's a difference between being an entertainer and being an artist.
I truly believe that love is greater than politics.
Walking into the studio making 'Scared Hearts Club,' it was important for us as artists to write a joyful record, but using joy as a weapon because joy is the best weapon against oppression; it's the best weapon against depression.
