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.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
When I go to see people, I always kind of hope they are going to play some kind of songs I know. So you've got to know your audience. It's kind of something that is a blessing and a curse in a way. You're obligated to play some of that stuff that people know, but I don't think that's all you have to do.
There is always a mix of apprehension and excitement before you try songs out on a new audience.
When you do have songs where you're going to say something, some kind of statement about cultural or social stuff, that in general people love it. People love to be challenged in that way.
The songs were really complicated. I used to meet people in bar bands who were trying to play our songs and they were really struggling with it. Technically it was really difficult stuff.
My biggest challenge was to make sure that the songs I did were who I am.
I'm quite a particular singer, and I need to feel like I can bite into the song, in a way, to make it my own. You want the challenge of the songs having some attitude.
You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.
One doesn't want to feel too contented; you have to feel challenged by the music.
That's the perfect audience: singing along to every word, knowing the songs, appreciating the non-hit songs, stuff like that.
So it's not so much that I set out to do something different, it's just that the songs themselves require their own individual voice and attention.