For a song cycle to work, you have to feel these things when you hear them and you either have an emotional reaction to it or you don’t. The plotline is something that gets woven together in the backstory.
It’s been a thrilling journey – I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity – it’s a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon tamer. And you just have to … ride and don’t let go and you will be fine.
There are things that I refuse to deal with except through my music… because I don’t trust humanity that much, and I don’t know if I trust me that much. But I trust the songs.
The way I see it, the men that I’m with, whoever they are, it’s like look, you have to accept the fact that I like ice cream, and I know it shows up on my hips but if you can’t accept that, then leave. Go away, toodles. It is non-negotiable.
After a while, though, you realize that a whole slew of young singer-songwriter piano players are getting compared to you. That’s when you feel the passage of time is occurring.
The word ‘confession,’ to me, means needing to be absolved. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m not asking people to understand. I’d like to think that I tell stories and sometimes my life weaves through it.
