Speaking and singing were equally common in my house. I started songwriting about the time that I started forming sentences.

My mom is an elementary school music teacher, a pianist, and a singer, and my dad plays guitar - he's a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. My mom does musical theater, too. All of those influences were around.

I really believe in hopefulness and respect people that are hopeful. I think I'm at my best when I think hopefully.

Even people that are close to me or people that are acquaintances... The only question I get now is, 'How is music going?' It's an overpowering quality of my life now, the fact that I write songs. It's weird to navigate what that means socially.

I think I've had extremes of being unable to exist outside of my own head, and then I only am existing for other people... There's a middle ground where I should take care of myself and other people.

It's weird to get asked questions that I don't know the answers to... But I like getting questions I don't know the answer to because maybe it's the first time I've been asked to articulate these things.

I've been journaling longer than I've been a musician, longer than I've been an artist, longer than I've been a writer in general.

I think a lot about my obsessive need to document things and what it's going to mean in the future.

From the very beginning, I had a lot of female role models in music. I would go to shows, and there were always women fronting bands and playing guitar or backing up and playing drums or bass in a band. That probably contributed to my belief in myself to go out and perform for people.

There have been a couple specific instances where I've felt like I couldn't survive without interacting with a certain person. I've been involved with some pretty manipulative people who have told me the same thought: that I can't live without them.

Really unfiltered personal writing is cool to me. I'm like, 'How did you show that to everyone?'

It's one thing to make something, and then it's another thing to put it in front of other people.

We were so limited on time for 'No Burden' that we didn't get to overthink anything. There was no going for the perfect take, or even going for three takes. It was kind of nice because what you're hearing is our first impulse.

Whenever I'm trying to understand people that I don't understand, or things in people or even in myself, I'll say, 'When did this negativity get here?' I try to think back to how I was raised to deal with things, and then consider how the person that I'm dealing with grew up.

It's true that no child is born knowing there's an evil thing. You learn what is ugly.

I love Led Zeppelin!

I take photos, I used to make films, I journal incessantly, and I really value the documentation of life. Because it's almost like you are making something special by wanting to make it exist in an object - on paper or even just in the computer - making these recordings, making this music.

You have to laugh at things in order to let them be what they truly are. Because nothing is only sad. Nothing is only funny. There's context to all of those things.

I just feel like you're being realistic if you can laugh at yourself.

The media, and how we're taught to read it, has a huge impact on who we become as people.

I really enjoy navigating the business aspect of having a band, and there is a great amount of instinct. You don't wanna work with people who make you feel weird, even if they're super qualified.

I like to think of hope as a fact and something that wins out always. Whether you're hopeful or not, actually, you do get through what you're in the middle of. When you're in it, you don't feel like that's possible. But time and time again, we're proven wrong.

Being on tour, it's really easy to stop knowing people that you want to know, because you're not sharing experiences; you're not existing in the minor moments of somebody's life.

I'm never writing as a character.

I don't even drink coffee. I try to avoid becoming reliant on any substance.

You don't have to make something in order to retain your identity as an artist or a writer or a creative person. A lot of people think they have to be producing in order to maintain that identity.

My mom is an elementary-school music teacher. For her, music is an educational tool.

I will say it is funny that writing a song about not wanting to entertain people is what got me a career in entertainment.

That's my main complaint with Murakami: that he writes these complex males and then really static women.

Yo La Tengo were a major inspiration for me because they're one of the first bands that I got into on my own, separate from my parents, when I was in high school. I have all their albums. That's the place we'd like be in someday.

Questions don't easily die within me until they're answered, and so being able to write a song and put words to complex feelings is part of my process of understanding and letting go of things.

A breakup is a state of mind that needs encouragement and needs hopeful, forward thinking.

I was the funny one in my group; there was a lot pressure to be responsible for everyone's happiness. I didn't like watching other friends of mine be called the 'pretty one' or the 'smart one.' That had no depth, and it didn't match how I knew them.

I don't end up writing songs in my journals, but I'm sure that my ability to write songs has been helped by how consistently and impulsively I try to get my life into words through the journals.

When I'm on a stage, it's just me, singing a song with words that I wrote and I believe in. And if I don't believe in them anymore, I'll stop singing that song.

I couldn't have imagined working on a film I didn't believe in.

I think in 'No Burden' there was a lot of positivity on the record.

Before I even pick up a guitar, usually the words are done. So I'm not first and foremost a musician. I'm first and foremost a writer.

I've talked with friends about this: when you write about yourself, that's what people connect to. When you write a sermon or a lesson, that may not reach people. I've learned a lot from people who have been writing about themselves.

There was never an 'a-ha' moment when a spider bit me and I knew I could write songs. For that reason, I don't know if I'm always going to be able to. I want to write songs forever, but it's an elusive thing.

I was always writing. I've always been attracted to words and stories, communication.

Humans are fascinated with communication. I was always drawn to words and stories, staying in touch with your feelings and being open to what's around you.

I feel like the expectations have gone up. It's not a complaint, but it's a little intimidating. People are like, 'Oh, you're on Matador. It's kind of a legendary label - you're going to have to live up to all those other bands.' I guess it's not that explicit.

Headliners, no matter the genre, usually are a person or band who has an ethos.