“I’m one of the artists that even though I love my soulful stuff, I love to turn up and have a good time and that’s another side of me.”

It’s a competitive city, it’s full of just great artists and talent. It gave me the confidence, the passion, the realness I try my hardest to portray, so it has had about 90% influence on me.

I don’t like to veer away from the truth because I think that’s what people have fallen in love with about my music.

He is fearless and the way he comes to the music is like we share the same passion for what we do and with somebody from the West. In my opinion that would be a great collaboration.

I think that I work hard to make my music as a diary for new generations who find out about it years later.

As long as it doesn’t veer away from who I am, I’m down with it.

They can go through the history and see a trail.

I feel that’s why people can connect so well with it because it’s all honest.

I can’t be passionate about something that I don’t understand. In my music.

My music is very raw, it’s emotional, and it’s honest.

Love and heartbreak is something that’s always been a part of me.

But at the same time, there’s still a classy side to me that I’ve seen in Oakland as well.

I like to just take all of them and allow them to help me build.

When you have somebody who takes their craft seriously, you don’t have to babysit them and be there all the time.

The influence that Oakland has on my sound is about 90%.

No matter is going on, I have something for that time or era.

I am so weak over love and heartbreak.

There are the alpha waves in the brain; another clock is the heart. And all the while tick the mysterious, ruthless clocks that regulate aging.

Most creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising.

The success of SYNC is another proof point that we are doing just that.

My second novel, “Good Benito”, was not finished. I wished that I had spent another year with it.

We used to say that inside Cecil Beaton there was another Cecil Beaton sending out lots of little Cecils into the world. One did the sets, another did the costumes.

Perl is another example of filling a tiny, short-term need, and then being a real problem in the longer term.

That requires that we listen to one another and get challenged and grow by living with difference within the body of the church.

Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.