I never really had the chance to play the kind of music I wanted to play. It was always just classical. It had its limits. I play piano now and again in the new forms of music that I actually want to play, but at the time, it was something that I just kind of moved past.

There are always safe spaces. You can be a beacon for other people who are struggling. It's hard to put your heart out there and put it in other peoples' hands. But the receiving end is gentle.

Stay in school and band, kids! It had its nerdy moments, and I always felt like I wanted to do something more with it.

When I was a kid, I was a really bad collaborator. I was pretty introverted.

My seven-year-old daughter knows old songs and how the neighborhoods got their names. There are little things: Businesses receive blessings from Hawaiian priests before opening, and everyone's kids have their debut luau. You can't really get through a day without doing something Hawaiian.

I want to get to the point where I can retire at 21, and my whole family is proud of me. That's the goal in everything that I do.

My father kept me busy from dawn to dusk when I was a kid. When I wasn't pitching hay, hauling corn or running a tractor, I was heaving a baseball into his mitt behind the barn... If all the parents in the country followed his rule, juvenile delinquency would be cut in half in a year's time.

The pressure from within used to have an impact on my behaviour. If games had gone badly, I would take things home with me. I'd be snappy at my kids and felt constantly wound up.