I think songwriting was the biggest way that I found my identity.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.
My songwriting and my style became more complex as I listened, learned, borrowed and stole and put my music together.
As far as songwriting, my inspirations came from love, life and death, and viewing other people's situations.
My experience with songwriting is usually so confessional, it's so drawn from my own life and my own stories.
Everything in life influences my music. I've always used songwriting as a means to share what I think is profound.
I loved a lot of different kinds of music, but for my own thing, I went for the singer-songwriters.
I built a reputation as a songwriter in the industry before my own hits. People were used to coming to me for songs. There were songs like 'Clown' and 'Mountains' that were my songs that I wanted to keep. But the record labels saw me as a songwriter. It was hard to get people to believe in me as an artist.
Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn't get some of that stuff out.
I am a songwriter. I do get to put my personal experiences in song.
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.