I've never seen the devil create music.
With pop music and pop musicians, you know everything about everyone all the time, particularly their physical appearance. With female musicians, that's made a big thing of, and I think people, certainly with me, have appreciated a bit of mystery.
I'd refer to myself as a feminist. I don't think my music is overtly rooted in feminism. I'm a teenager, and 95 percent of my friends are boys, and that's just the way I've always been.
I started writing music when I was around twelve. My current record company saw a video of me performing at my school's talent show.
Coming from New Zealand, all the music I listen to is not made by New Zealanders. People never come to New Zealand to play a show because it's in the middle of nowhere.
I tend to start with a full set of lyrics, and then my producer, Joel Little, and I work on the music collaboratively.
I always thought martial arts was the most modern choreography we could have right now, and I always wanted to put it to music.
The music is all. People should die for it. People are dying for everything else, so why not the music?
Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.
Me, I've concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things.
Music was what bothered me, what interested me.
Not to speak disparagingly of Justin Bieber or Rihanna, but they're not so hands-on with their image or their sound. They don't write the music. They have people doing things for them.
It was all about music, about getting your friends to come and see you play. I don't see that same intimacy happening very much today.
Music is the career I'm lucky enough to get paid for, but I have other desires and passions.
Music is the doorway that has led me to drawing, photography, and writing.
There is no 'perfect' in music. If I ever came off the stage and felt it could not be better, it would then be time to quit.
I've come to the conclusion that a long, personal relationship is next to impossible for me. Ultimately, music is a possessive mistress.
I have been long associated with British music. I have favoured it as my alternate music next to American.
In some ways I believe music is the more convincing communicator of ideas than words. For instance, we can hear of Kordaly and Bartok and recognise them as Hungarian, but very few of us speak Hungarian, but the music itself speaks to more people.
Opera tells stories through the pure emotion of music. An exhibition has to tell a story purely visually. I've tried to incorporate both of those things - pure emotion and being more visual - into my writing.
I don't listen to music when I write. I need silence.
