There are a lot of actors who will sit here and talk to you about characters – ‘He does this, and she’s a really interesting character because she does this.’ I’m not like that at all. I’m not an actory actor.
I’ve been writing music since I was about eight. I would write sporadically. I wrote a lot of music in high school. I guess the oldest song on the record (“I Thought I Saw Your Face”) is about eight years old.
I don’t know why femininity should be associated with weakness. Women should be free to express who they are without thinking, ‘I need to act like a man, or I need to tone it down to be successful.’ That’s a very good way to keep women down.
It’s very much a piece of myself when I write a song. I don’t mean to say it’s very personal, like the lyrics mean something personal to me. When I write a song, that’s my taste in music – my taste in chord progressions and melodies.
I tend to like simple music. And clever, succinct lyrics. Songs that don’t try to be more than they need to to be effective, to stir up something emotionally within you.
I’ve never pursued a role. I always hear stories about actors going after parts and I’m, like, ‘How do they do that?’ It seems so weird. It seems like a total myth or something.
It’s great, because we’ve had some really great people playing with us who really have studied the record and been able to recreate a lot of what was done. But I would need a choir of eight, probably, to do all of the backup vocals.
