The 'Jonny Quest' theme had a huge influence on me while I was growing up.

When I was growing up, every show had live music. Now, almost none have live music. Probably 97 percent of the shows on television are probably synthesized, or mostly synthesized, and that's a shame.

When I was 10, I had a group of friends that I used to love to make movies with, and we made them growing up; we did it all through high school.

I always feel like my writing is consistently influenced by everything I watched and listened to growing up, so it's just this crazy collage of everything, you know.

I don't think that anyone was trying to keep me from writing the first album. It's just when you're on 'American Idol' or a TV show like that, you wanna capitalize on that momentum, and you want to use that to your advantage, obviously, so the best way to do that is to get the music out as fast as possible. And there's no time to create, really.

The biggest thing I'm seeing - and I have to be careful what I say here - is that people are tired of the old guard and the familiar brands. They're looking for more individuality and creativity, and that's coming out of this whole new wave of younger brands: Thom Browne, Michael Bastian, Robert Geller, myself.

My shaven head is my way of saying 'I wont take no for an answer,' it is my way of saying 'I believe in my creativity and artistry.'

It's great being an actor and being part of a play or a film where there's usually quite a big group of people who are collaborating, and your job is really to fit in and share that energy. With music, because I write the songs, it's a broader, more abstract process.