Everything starts and ends with the song, and working with writers and really learning their process and craft was an invaluable experience.

You need to know what makes artists tick. Having been through the process myself as a musician, since I was an early teen, gave me an advantage - understanding them from their point of view, because it's about them, it's not about you - it's their vision and what they're capable of achieving, and you're the conduit.

It's really only all about music. It's not like a big rocket scientist kind of philosophy or anything.

When I'm hiring someone I look for magic and a spark. Little things that intuitively give me a gut feeling that this person will go to the ends of the earth to accomplish the task at hand.

Social media lacks insight, common sense, and emotion. Understand that while it's easy to condemn celebrities on social media, people should also think of repercussions their insensitive remarks can make on the celebrities' family.

The Internet has been a blessing and a curse. The curse we know: A lot of people appropriating your intellectual property without paying for it. But I think it's important to realize the blessing of the Internet, which is that everybody has a voice and you can break through, even without a record company.

A lot of what people are calling 'artificial intelligence' is really data analytics - in other words, business as usual. If the hype leaves you asking 'What is A.I., really?,' don't worry, you're not alone.

I don't really use YouTube that much. I am a very Internet-oriented person, but I'm more of a Twitter freak - I'm always on Twitter. Or chatting with friends.