- All Quotes
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Ever since I was a kid, this was all I wanted to do. I've wanted to do music. I wanted to sing. It's all I know.
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I've had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, 'Your music sucks, you don't know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don't know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'
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I always say I wanna work with Alicia Keys. I'm in awe of her.
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I don't ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, 'It sounds good!' It's got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.
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You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that's what you're gonna get!
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'Doo-wop' is a very special word for me. Because I grew up listening to my dad who, as a Fifties rock & roll head, loved doo-wop music.
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No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.
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I don't throw lavish parties or nothing like that - I just want a bed and a TV.
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My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.
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My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you'll see you had to be sharp onstage.
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Hawaii is paradise. It sounds cheesy to say it, but there's music in the air there.
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I don't like two stories. I like one story. I never grew up with stairs. I like to stick to what I know.
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I tend to overthink things. I'm not the guy who screams 'This is a world smash!' when I finish a song.
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I don't try and be dark, but there are obviously darker emotions that I want to capture sometimes.
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I've learned people are watching, so don't do nothing stupid.
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Songwriters, you have to work - you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song's going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.
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I feel, as a songwriter, it's one of the hardest things to do - to sit down and say how you feel.
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Hawaiian music is beautiful and simple.
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I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There's no tricks. It's honesty with big melodies.