I went to this boy's choir school when I was growing up, and I think that the first time that I consciously started making music was when this one kid joined our class. He was an amazing pianist and would come up with all these ideas. I've always had a really competitive side, so I saw him doing that, and was like, "I have to try writing songs as well."
A lot of the people I was writing with think a lot more about lyrics and a lot more about the details from the beginning. That kind of thinking made me a little self-conscious because I was suddenly having to judge what I was doing early on in the process.
Normally when I'm writing, in the beginning I don't think of lyrics at all. I'm just improvising.
I try to not be self-conscious in my writing process.
I decided to create a really good laptop recording situation and to learn how to write that way, rather than have the perfect stuff around.
When I'm writing, those ideas are seldom inspired by music itself. I won't often listen to an artist and come up with an idea.
Most of the writing that I do is a complete train of thought process. I'll just be walking down the street or sitting on the toilet or whatever and something will pop into my head and I'll record it on my phone and then over the next little while it'll develop a little more in my head.
