I had a nice talk with my parents and told them I was going to give singing a go. I will go back to studying, but I'd love to get a degree in writing.
I went down to my keyboard and was playing random chords, and the one line I kept repeating was, 'I'm a lost boy from Neverland.' I decided to post it to Vine, and it got the biggest reaction I'd ever gotten. People wanted to hear more, and I had to explain it wasn't a song.
At first it was kind of hard, because I had become used to just my phone screen in front of me. But sharing your songs with an audience is incredible.
I think 'Lost Boy' is just really relatable. You can be any age from any place in life, and you're bound to feel lonely at some point.
I was never chasing to make a career out of it, but every day after school, I'd go to my keyboard and play for four hours and make up songs. It was a constant part of my life.
Peter Pan is kind of this metaphor for someone or something that makes you feel at home, that brings you out of loneliness, that makes you free. And that's exactly what music does for me.
When I got my first email from a record label, I decided I didn't want to go in with just one song, so I sat down and kept on writing.
I think 'Lost Boy' is more of a metaphor for oneself. When I listen to that song, I don't picture someone else. I kind of wrote it from a very honest place.
I think music has always been what I always wanted to do, but I didn't know how or when I was going to get discovered.
I'm super excited to have people hear little stories about my life, the lives of my friends, people I know.
I came up with, 'I am a lost boy from Neverland, usually hanging out with Peter Pan' and recorded that simple line on my phone. I watched it back and thought it was kinda cheesy, and I was actually going to delete it. But I thought 'Whatever, it's catchy.'
Before 'Lost Boy,' I was singing, doing six-second covers on Vine, working part-time and in school, but music was always my true love.
Even to be flown out to New York was mind boggling for me, and signing with Columbia was great because they really understood my vision. Of all the labels that I met, they were the ones that really seemed to understand that I was really about the music, the writing, and the lyrics, so it was really fulfilling to sign with them.