So your music is defined as sort of like “genre-defiant,” but how would you define it in your own terms? 

I think, to me, the most important thing for my music is to be sincere…all the songs that I write come from, like, real things that have happened to me like real heartbreaks and real like, you know, periods of depression or anger or frustration. And every kind of lyric that I write is something that I really, truly feel in the moment I think that's something that when I talk to a lot of people who have resonated with my music, that's the one thing that I think stands out to them and it's something that I'm very deliberate about when I write. It's just trying to make each line very, very sincere and I think as well, like, it feeds back into the “genre-defiant” thing where I like a lot of different types of music and I've grown up…being related to pop-punk and punk music and then also kind of, like, being into I really indie and pop music and electronic music as well. When I write and when I produce, I just want to tap into what feels really authentic and sincere to me in the moment and, like, my emotions. I think that's kind of where I want my music to always lie in whichever direction it takes. 

Yeah, definitely. Well, that's very clear through, like, your music that it's very personal and that you can really see the emotions come through, so you’re definitely getting the message across…

Thank you.

When you're creating your music, what's your favorite part: the writing the lyrics or actually creating the musical portions or producing it or maybe something else?

…I think, like, you get really excited about different pieces at different times…For example, I could be writing and I could, like, come up with a line that really just, like, makes my week where I'm like, “Oh f*ck yeah,” like I wrote that line…That line felt like it just clicked, and I felt like I landed on something special, but I could also be…producing and I could come up with, like, a guitar line or…a vocal harmony…or like a cool synth sound that could also, like, give me the same feeling where I'm like, “Damn, that was something special,” like that kind of made the song stand out to me, and I hope to other people. I feel like it just changes depending on the song and, you know, I think it's really about, like, finding those moments why I feel like I’ve created something special. It's funny, when I was making that music video with Mark—the “How Do You Feel?” one—what he said was like, “...you can make mistakes that are actually like little pieces of magic that the universe is offering you.” I think that's what it is whether it's a lyric that you accidentally write or it's like a sound that you accidentally stumble upon. It’s like finding those little mistakes that…level up the song, in a sense, and make you feel like you’ve landed on something really special.

I love that! It sounds like you're really embracing happy accidents and…finding the special moments throughout…

Yeah.

So how do computers play a role–or like looping–how does that play a role in how you create music?

It's a huge part of it. I mean, like I've always been a big computer geek and computer guy. The way I started getting into music really was basically because I had this little iPod nano with, you know, a bunch of these like pre-made songs in it. I was, like, trying to figure out how to get more music on it and how to get customizations and jail-broke it, which is like an Apple thing where you can hack into it and like more features. I did that and that was, like, my introduction computers and then from there, I basically just like doing lots of coding and hacking websites and making my own apps. I also started at the same time kind of making my own loops on computers and I think, like, the electronic, digital piece has always been a very big part of my music. I play a lot of guitar and I record guitar and drums and everything, but all my music is done by me, in my bedroom studio that I built myself. I kind of, like, chop everything up myself. My music at its core is actually quite electronic, like, I take a lot of my sounds and I chop them up and sample them and I create my own loops, either on my computer or on my iPhone based on, like, real sounds that I've made…it's not me going into a studio and hiring people to kind of make my music for me. It's actually like me just being in my own studio and having to kind of turn my own sounds into like these full songs. So yeah, it's something that I've been doing for a long time…creating my own loops and chopping up my own samples on my computer. It's definitely like every single one of my songs in my catalog has that footprint to it.