My songwriting and my style became more complex as I listened, learned, borrowed and stole and put my music together.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I think songwriting was the biggest way that I found my identity.
My songwriting has evolved, just as I've evolved as a person.
As far as songwriting, my inspirations came from love, life and death, and viewing other people's situations.
My strength was in singing and songwriting, which was a new discovery for me when I was 18. And I decided if I pursued songwriting, which is what was closest to my heart, then there would be no competition. I would just live my life being myself and living my dream.
My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it's so drawn from my own life and my own stories.
I was a different person before I started to write. When I realized I could be a songwriter and that people would listen - that was when I started feeling good in my life.
Everything in life influences my music. I've always used songwriting as a means to share what I think is profound.
Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.
I loved a lot of different kinds of music, but for my own thing, I went for the singer-songwriters.
It wasn't so much that I had to leave to make it in the music business as I was curious to be out on my own and sort of explore. I never felt that where I was ever influenced my songwriting.