My biggest challenge was to make sure that the songs I did were who I am.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.
My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.
The challenge is how strange and different my voice sounds, so I have tried to sound like other people and tried to be something I wasn't. I have tried to be a soul singer because someone else thought that a good idea. Not because I did.
All I needed to do was sing with conviction, speaking my truth from the heart, honestly and straightforwardly, and to offer my words, ideas and music to the audience as if it were one collective friend that I'd known for a very long time.
That's really what was wonderful for me growing up, since I got to know so many of the songwriters who liked me and thought I had talent. They would then tell me how to read a lyric and sing a song, and challenge me to try and find a different end to a song.
Some of those songs, you really have to bite them. You challenge yourself, you challenge the audience, you do something different. People weren't expecting it.
I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes.
My career was really odd, because I literally had a greatest hits album out and nobody knew who I was. They knew the songs, but they didn't know me.
I think songwriting was the biggest way that I found my identity.
I really just tried to make a record full of great songs, which is the goal I always have.