The biggest risk I’ve ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn’t going to try too hard to conform, and I knew that it could possibly not work out.
My first album was completed in three months.
My mother was always supportive.
So pretty much, to sum it up, if you can freak someone out and bring that kind of emotion out of somebody with a song, you’re doing something right.
There’s a certain level of pageantry with ‘Idol,’ and in order to work the show, you kind of have to feed into it.
There’s no regrets for me.
I was really beating myself up about performances and how I looked and this and that.
I was a big fan of Middle Eastern elements of music and experimental electronic and tribal sounds.
I wanted the focus to be on my ability as a singer and as an entertainer – not on my private life.
I had a lot of fun with my costume designer.
I think, for the majority of my twenties, I was always so concerned with what I didn’t have, or what I still wanted.
I think Lady Gaga is great and is changing pop music and bringing back a certain rock ‘n’ roll spirit, swagger to the game.
I never wore full-on eyeliner in high school, but I wanted to.
I like ‘Rocky Horror.’
I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it’s fast and broad.
If My New Album Isn’t Out in 2014, Something is Seriously Wrong!
I try to go throughout my daily life just as if nothing has changed, but you don’t have much anonymity anymore, which feels really good. People come up, and say hi and they enjoy your work.
I’ve been known to make out with girls from time to time. Couple drinks involved, you know. It’s fun. And who knows? Maybe it’ll go further someday. I don’t know.
Pop is a little bit theatrical. That’s the whole vibe. That’s the point – is that it’s great music, great melodies, great hooks. But, on top of it, it’s a presentation. There’s a showmanship about it. And that’s why I wanted to be a pop star.
Fantasy is so much hotter than reality most of the time.
I think the responsibility of pop stars is to liberate the masses. In that everyone can be whatever they wanna be. You can march to your own beat. It’s so hard sometimes in our country because conformity is the way things are pushed.