Being able to still make records is a privilege. I don't take it casually.
I'm a musician first, a food-lover second, a dirty mouth with feet, and a girl last time I checked.
My brother was a fantastic cheerleader for my development as a musician. He was almost 10 years older than me and would really push me to develop as a songwriter.
There's a richness to the old works if you look before the 1950s. The chord progressions and the language was more complicated, especially in the jazz and classical world.
The fact that religion plays such a part in how people vote troubles me, troubles me as a minister's daughter. Because I always felt that the separation of church and state was what our forefathers and foremothers really fought for.
I have never smoked and have always drunk a lot of water, but cleanse, tone and moisturise every day? No way!
So the first job that I got - my father got it for me - he had his clerical collar on, was a gay bar in D.C., it was Mr. Henry's of Georgetown.
Musically, I always allow myself to jump off of cliffs. At least that's what it feels like to me. Whether that's what it actually sounds like might depend on what the listener brings to the songs.
I was two and a half when I first climbed up and sat at a piano.
It's been a thrilling journey - I have had to really learn that an orchestra is an entity - it's a creature. I have been calling it the dragon and the conductor is the dragon tamer. And you just have to... ride and don't let go and you will be fine.
I'm a conduit for telling people's stories. It's a privilege.
I know people sometimes have this fantasy about Cornwall. But the Cornish are so grounded.
My father was a preacher in Maryland and we had crab feasts - with corn on the cob, but no beer, being Methodist - outside on the church lawn.
There is an energy that you carry when you're nurturing another life where you're protecting first - and once you know that cub is out of the way of the hunter's gun, you can be a little more daring.
This was a time frame when dance music and clubs were having a real impact on culture, and it had an impact on me.
I think doing variations on a classical theme is a dangerous thing to do.
You have to be clear what your message is and what you're doing. I mean, Miley Cyrus is an amazing talent, and sometimes you kind of just want to say, 'We know you're not Hannah Montana anymore. We know that, my dear. My darling. Now, go be great.'
Sometimes you need to take a departure from what you do to something that's slightly different in order to get inspiration.
A lot of songs are derivative of each other. Sometimes you need to take a departure from what you do to something that's slightly different in order to get inspiration.
A lot of songs are derivative of each other.
