“One of my goals is to find an unsigned YouTube artist and feature them on my album. That’s what I wished someone would’ve done for me.”

A lot of people don’t know, but New Jersey has, like, 700,000 acres of farmland.

I actually get a lot of messages with people saying, ‘What’s a Marvin Gaye?’ and, I mean… Oh, wow. I must be getting old, because someone who was born in 2004 just asked me what a Marvin Gaye was.

I was carrying my friend in his casket to put him in the hearse, and I was thinking, ‘I need to write a song for this guy, because he always told me I would have a No. 1 song.’

I don’t love the whole Hollywood mentality, but I do love the weather and how motivated everyone is around here. It motivates me to make fun music. I’m an East Coaster – I’m from New Jersey, so I’ll probably feel like that forever.

I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Motown records.

When I get high anxiety, I vomit. My mom was so stressed out. Then I found out I was staying in John Mayer’s old dorm room, and I had a nice roommate. That completely brought me down. I was completely comfortable at Berklee.

I started making remixes for every specific girl I wanted to date. That’s how I learned how to use Pro Tools, and then I started making my own music.

I’ve always made weird sounds with my mouth. I’ve always been fascinated by the sound design, what you can do with your mouth. I was the kid dancing around in third grade on the basketball court. While everyone would be playing sports, I would be jumping around.

It’s crazy because I have a scar on my right eyebrow, but people who don’t know me very well think that I just intentionally shave that part of it.

I started piano when I was four. My mom taught me. And then I went to Manhattan School of Music during high school, like every Saturday. And then I went to Berklee for college, in Boston.

When Marvin Gaye made his music, he evoked this feeling that would reach everybody.

I’ve always weaseled my way into Grammy parties to network and everything, but now I have a legitimate reason to be there – it’s so cool.

The scar on my eye is a result of the doctor’s sewing up my face. It was 450 stitches and plastic surgery.

Everyone’s gone through a breakup, and I’ve dated girls in the past where… I’ve never had a messy breakup, thankfully, but I’m never the one to end it. I’m always caught off guard as to why things ended because I guess I’m oblivious in a way.

Shy Carter helped me write ‘One Call Away.’ He is a brand new artist. I really want to help jumpstart his career because I think he’s super-talented.

When I wrote ‘Marvin Gaye,’ my whole intention was to make a record that people would put on a record player… and just instantly make out with each other.

I think I’m a much better painter than an actor.

It feels like I’m starting to come into my own in terms of where I want to go artistically, toward more complicated, interesting characters.

All were artists, playing foolish, having fights and making love as if the rest of the world had no racial problems whatsoever.

People sometimes ask if I want to be a solo artist, but it just wouldn’t be any fun being on your own.

There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.

I want to sell out arenas and make an album and work with some of the best artists in the world.

I am an artist. I am here to live out loud.

I grew up in an artists community in New York, in a building that was government-subsidised for artists. No one made any money, but they made art for the sake of art.