I really felt like 'Chandelier' was a big pop song. But we weren't sure what would happen if I wasn't willing to show my face and do promo and go on tour and do the traditional kind of pop strategy. So I had no expectations.
As a person, I'm a good person who shows up for my friends. I do my best to be good. As an artist, I have no idea.
Sometimes, after I finish the lyrics and have all the melodies and harmonies and the pop and vocal, I'll be like, 'I have to keep it. I love it too much.'
I get to do what I love and communicate whatever I want.
That would really be my fantasy - maybe just do three shows a year and each year in a different city, just singing for the people who really want to see it, and then just write for other people. I do love to sing, but I'm just as happy singing in the bathtub, you know?
So where a lot of people will spend three weeks on one song, I will write 10 in three weeks. Maybe the song that they sculpt is going to be as successful as just one of the 10 that I wrote.
If anyone besides famous people knew what it was like to be a famous person, they would never want to be famous.
The accolades don't nourish me - being with loved ones and my dogs does.
I have a family I love. They tend to say, 'Great job!' Or 'You work really hard! Good for you!' Or 'You look nice today!' Or 'Don't be ridiculous, order the fries!' Or 'You are hilarious.' That's all the family I need.
I'm sort of a gay man trapped in a woman's body when it comes to music sometimes - it's crowded in here!
I thought I was going to be an actor. I liked entertaining. I was pretty much tap dancing for attention from a very early age. My family was kind of musical, and there were people in the circus next door and actors across the road. I just enjoyed messing around with music growing up, but I really thought I was going to be an actor.
I like to sing, and I like to make records - and that part is fun.
I don't need to be rich anymore; I don't need to be a millionaire.
About 50 percent of the songs on the radio are like, 'Live like tomorrow doesn't exist. Like it's my birthday. Like it's the last day of my life'... Such a large percentage of pop music is really about party time.
I don't go to shows because I just want to listen to the music performed live. I want to get to know the person who's performing it. Or I want to, like, take away a sense that I had an experience that nobody else is going to have again, or a unique experience for that moment.
I get to sit at home with the dogs on the sofa, record in a closet in the office, send them off and, if I'm lucky, make a million dollars.
I refrain from blaming anything on my parents.
I'll be the songwriter for pop stars and then they can be the front person and I don't have to be famous.
I guess I don't know if I'm comfortable with fame or touring or promo or any of that stuff, and I really discovered that I love working for people and co-writing and working under someone.
I hope I am a psychotherapist's dream. I've spent enough hours in therapy.
