It's one thing to be able to sing well, but another to be an artist and find your own voice within music. And that's what the goal was for me in my teenage years. I had to find myself.
I'm huge on the dynamic of my show and the experience, not just performing songs. It's important to me to make sure that people experience every song, and feel like I'm singing directly to them. Your eyes never want to leave the stage because there's always something happening.
The studio is the place for me to really confront my feelings and get it all out. I love being in that space and creating, doing what I love, making art.
One of the first CDs I ever bought was Alicia Keys's 'MTV Unplugged' album. That album is the one I would take home and listen to on my Walkman, in my room, before I had an iPod. I learned most of the songs on piano.
I guess 16, 17, 18, that whole period was a dark time for me. I guess it was a hormonal thing, going through all those changes as a young woman, learning who you are and being comfortable with yourself, and also, which goes along with that, boys. It was definitely an unhappy, 'Who am I?' period. 'Who am I gonna be?'
My parents have very different tastes. They exposed me to so many different things. I represent both sides.
It's really powerful to have a strong base that genuinely loves the music and plays it over and over again.
As a young woman, I experienced high school and heartbreak, and the music I started to write was a little bit more poetic, and more inspired by spoken word. The real raw emotional things that sit in the back of our minds, that you were afraid to say? That's how I started to write my music. And that's how 'H.E.R. Volume One' came about.
I will say about my fans, from day one they've been listening and are still listening to my projects on repeat.
A lot of women need to know that they don't have to conform, they don't have to take no for an answer.
Sometimes I'll just go on my piano and just start playing what I'm feeling. It all depends on what I'm feeling at the moment.
I've become a voice for young women who are growing up and uncomfortable being vulnerable, uncomfortable with changes, heartbreak - and becoming jaded.
People have always tried to imitate, but at the end of the day, no one can do me better than I can do me, you know?
I don't know if I have a favorite part of being an artist. I do love being onstage and performing with my band. I also love rehearsing with them and creating the show, that's always a fun part. But there's also nothing like being in the studio and being able to get back to myself and get back to my feelings.