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I experienced bullying a lot. I was an only child, and I was kind of a small kid with a big mouth, and so I always got myself in trouble.
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I've written hundreds of songs, and I tend to think that my instincts are pretty good when it comes to what people are going to like and what people aren't going to like.
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I truly believe that love is greater than politics.
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That's how life is: there are peaks and valleys in life, and that's how I like to write songs.
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A timeless pop song is the hardest thing to do as a songwriter.
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I write in character a lot.
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I've played so many gigs in front of around seven people. It's difficult to keep motivated, but it's all about growth. The love of music kept me going.
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Fear just crushes creativity, and if I let fear into the studio and into the songwriting, I was going to let it kill the artist inside of me.
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I write songs based on things I see in the culture around me.
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I wrote 'Don't Stop' just like I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' - I didn't try to make either a hit. I just wanted to write a song I liked.
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I was rambunctious - a boy's boy, full of energy. I wasn't a bad kid. I just liked to talk.
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I look at bands like the Beach Boys, Hall & Oates and Blur, and those are the bands I want to be in company with because their songwriting is intelligent, and yet you don't need to be a musical genius to pick it up.
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Foster the People wouldn't exist without Mophonics.
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I feel like my calling is to show people joy: to make them feel like there's something to look forward to.
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L.A. gives me a lot. L.A. is a city of extremes. People come here from all over the world that have these, like, giant ideas, and they put everything into it. And some people just fall flat on their face, and some people, you know, shoot like a rocket.
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'Torches' opened a lot of doors. Ultimately, it turned into an experience to be reckoned with.
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I don't like to write the same song twice.
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I play guitar, bass, drums, piano, and pretty much any sort of stringed instrument - besides violin or cello.
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I remember, in middle school, I went to four different schools. That was a rough patch. But it's also what shaped me as a person.
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There's a lot of bands that blow up quickly, but then they die quickly. Longevity is the healthy thing; that's the pursuit.
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We need to do a better job of loving each other beyond race, beyond belief, beyond our difference.
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Writing for other people is easier than writing for myself - it's not as personal.
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The jingles saved my life. When I got hired to do that, I was on top. I finally was making a living doing what I loved. Before that, it was so bleak; it got so dark in L.A. I was 25, been living there for seven years trying to make it, and getting really close to getting signed with different bands and as a solo artist only to have my hopes dashed.
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One of the things with the second record, a word I held close to my chest was 'brave.' To take chances to go outside the box and explore. To continue to toss off any expectation that our fans or anyone else might have of us, to just tap into who I am as a writer and artist and really just operate within that freedom of creation.