[Doing music] is time consuming, will drain you, and stress you out at times. But in the end if you love doing it, and you're putting out music you're proud of, it will never feel like work. It'll just feel like love.
I was inspired a little while before The Voice to dye my hair half black half blonde by Cruella De Vil of 101 Dalmatians. One day I was watching it and I told my mom I was going to dye my hair like Cruella's, and she thought I was joking. I came home from the salon, and she didn't talk to me for a few days!
Eventually I realized that Cry Baby was a character that was based off of me, and that we had a lot of similarities.
There are obviously so many artists that are very inspiring, but I can't say that they like - that I have someone in mind that is like a creative direction of where I want to go as an artist. I think I'm just doing my own thing.
I'm happy that I get to work with people that I enjoy being around. It's really cool when people understand and want to help your vision and are like rooting for you. I just, I love them a lot.
Probably "Mrs. Potato Head" or "Training Wheels". "Mrs. Potato Head" because it was the hardest song to write and it took me a while to finish it and feel good about the lyrical content. But I've had that idea in my head for so long, especially the visuals - pulling apart a Mrs. Potato face and how that doubled as a meaning for plastic surgery. "Training Wheels" because it's the only love song on the album.
I listen to a lot of music. But I definitely haven't looked at an artist and like thought I want to have a song like this.
Make sure this [music industry] is what you love to do, and you can't imagine doing anything else.
Mark Ryden is my favorite visual artist.
A lot of people relate my success now with The Voice, and it has nothing to do with that. I've definitely worked my ass off for a year afterwards trying to get that off of my forehead. If anything, it's actually harder to get labels to look at you when you come off a show like that, and it's harder for people to look at you like a real artist.
I've had a lot of people come up to me after shows and tell me that "Dollhouse" really helped them with whatever they were going through with their families. I thought that was really amazing, that it could mean one thing for me but another thing for someone else.
I just think that pop music is very interesting in how it can reach so many people. I like that I can tell stories and I just wanted to be heard more, I guess. That's why it's pop, but in my mind I don't really view my music as pop, I don't really view it as anything. I just look at it as a picture, I like visuals.
When I first started writing the album, "Cry Baby" was a song that I really wanted to write because it represented all of these personal insecurities that I had for a long time.
I'm obsessed with the venue and the people so it's going to be really fun.The last couple of tours I didn't have anything like that because of the budget, so I'm super excited because this is really going to bring the album to life.
I think honestly when I was younger I use to love going to carnivals in Long Island. I use to love carnival season; I would drive to every town going to carnivals. That was definitely a favorite memory.
I obviously have a different connection to each song in a different way, and they all mean something different to me.
I definitely love horror movies and all that for sure.
When I was younger I used to be really into photography, and I still am, I just don't really get to do it besides taking my own artists photos and stuff like that.
I always mention toy sounds when I go into any session.
"Dollhouse" was definitely inspired by the whole Edward Scissorhands vibe where all of the houses are perfect, but inside each home there are very messed up families.
If I don't see a music video to it while writing it, I just scrap it immediately. It's very visual.
It's just weird because like when I was writing Cry Baby I like...the only thing that I was thinking about, when writing it, was the concepts and the visuals, and the way that it sounded kind of happened naturally.
I love Nicoletta Ceccoli , and I love Tim Burton movies. So those are like my biggest inspirations I think.
It's very hard to be an artist, on my first album, and I'm like asking for money for a music video for every song - it's so hard to do. You have to pick your battles for sure, but I definitely want - and I've always worked to make it all connect - for all of it to feel cohesive.
Everyone got to choose what they wanted to wear on stage, and by the third time going into wardrobe the stylists already knew what I'd love and what I would never throw on my body in a million years. They were fantastic, and it was so lovely working with them.