LOVE-MELROSE meets Melrose!

How would you describe yourself in five words?

Cerebral, exposed, adoring, tumultuous, alone.


What fictional character do you have the biggest crush on?

Fictional characters are so easy and satisfying to have a crush on because they rarely let you down. I love the feeling of finishing a book and feeling like a lovesick teenager over the protagonist, knowing you can revisit that feeling over and over and know they'll always be as predictably perfect as they were the first time you met. It's probably different if your fictional character crush happens to be on a television show or part of a series where it's impossible to know what they'll do next, but... well, that's one of the reasons I don't like watching television. But actually, my biggest fictional crush isn't really a hero - it's Scar from the Lion King. There's something about his voice, I blame Jeremy Irons, but I always thought he was such a sexual character. I'm serious! I think he's hot.


What “most likely to” superlative would you be most honored to receive?

Any superlative would be lovely because I didn't finish high school so I never got to find out what mine was, but if I could choose one for myself then it'd be most likely to go and live in an underwater cave. I've always been jealous of mermaids.


What is your favorite thing about what you do? Least favorite?

My favorite thing about what I do is the creation process in general, watching a song go from a memory to something my fans are making art from or writing as quotes. It's such a surreal experience because half the time I'll start writing a song feeling convinced that it's going nowhere, not even in a self-critical way but in the way where I feel as if I haven't found anything special, and then I'll watch it morph and grow and sometimes it'll end up in the trash but then you have the gems that push through the doubt and the set backs and they become the songs I hear sung back to me on tour. My least favorite thing would be trying to play games of spot the snake. I'm always inclined to trust people and you can't really be like that, the music industry is a whole field of long grass.


Is there anything you thought you'd hate about what you do but actually ended up loving?

I never thought I'd enjoy performing on television but I don't mind it nowadays. I used to suffer from stage fright so badly that I'd spend the minutes and hours leading up to a television performance feeling and being sick, going into this headspace where everything felt like a horrible dream or like I was a hamster in one of those running wheels. I don't think love is the right word, but I can cope with television performances now. Sometimes I'll like it. Sometimes it's just tolerable, but it feels like such a big improvement on how it used to be that I'd be discrediting myself not to mention it.


Do you prefer being in the studio or performing live? Why?

I'm not a singer. I'm a lyricist and a writer and an artist but I'm not a singer and I'm not a performer either. It took a long time for me to develop any kind of control over my live performances, both from a vocal and an everything-else perspective, and I'm constantly growing and getting better in that regard. You only really need to YouTube an early performance versus a more recent one to hear and see the difference, so I'm proud of that because I try to work hard to deliver something special when people take the time and spend the money to come and see me. But I think when you take all of that into consideration, I have to choose the studio - it's my home turf, it's where I'm comfortable and where I can focus on the music instead of whether or not I look like a deer caught in headlights and if I'm going to manage to hit that high note today.