When I perform Strauss, it is as if the music fits me like a glove. My voice seems to lie in a happy area in this music, which is lyrical and passionate at the same time.
I never had the influence of any other singer in my music, so I sounded like myself all the time.
The closest I've come to knowing myself is in losing myself. That's why I loved football before I loved music. I could lose myself in it.
I get uncomfortable in large groups of people and loud music.
The iPod completely changed the way people approach music.
What I like about music is the songs you can remember the lines of in a single second.
I never get tired of exploring Americana or country music, and I always have a little bit of a crooner in me that never seems to go away.
I started singing when I was five. I grew up the youngest of four kids who all studied classical piano, so you could say I've been listening to music ever since the moment of conception.
As a black artist in America, you know, it is so segregated as far as the radio goes and how they position music on the radio.
The music industry is a world of smoke and mirrors: they tell you exactly what they think you want to hear. And they are bare-faced lying. I tend to stay away from that.
I always felt like there was a certain standard of music that I had to do from the beginning, even when I didn't have the recognition that I have now.
People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that's not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.
As long as my music is real, it's no limit to how many ears I can grab.
I'm putting out this free music, constantly putting it out.
I don't really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.
I don't find music being less important than, like, politics.
But music raises a lot of issues. Music is something that matters to people a lot, and they put a lot of passion into it. And I think when you have an area like that, you're gonna find a lot of issues coming up.
I realize that I'm not going to be everybody's cup of tea, and that's okay. I think that's the point of music.
Undeniably, I'm a country singer; I'm a country songwriter. But I feel like I make country music for people who like country music and for people who don't.
Certain kinds of people will always have an issue with my music. But that's fine; it's OK. I don't want to be the McDonald's of music. I don't want to not turn anyone off. If you were everybody's cup of tea, you'd probably be boring.
I needed to really pursue music and learn what I needed to learn on my own by getting in and doing it, not by reading a book about it.
