When I was little, my mum would take me to see the orchestra, tell me to close my eyes and think about the story the music was telling. I always spoke about colours. I'd talk about how purple the oboe was.

I dress as a combination of space cowgirl and San Francisco art teacher.

When I got to NYU, I had applied based on playing folk music, and they said, 'You're the banjo girl,' so I thought ,'OK, I'm the banjo girl.'

The music industry is so cool because it's constantly changing.

I'm a feminist, so it's just a really nice creative energy to work with a lot of women.

I've always measured a good day as one where I can read, write, and run.

It's not like I see colours. It's just, for me, an incredibly strong association between music and colour.

I just kind of, like, know who I am. I think that comes from having an incredibly strong sense of purpose for a very long time.

What I love about going home is that, if I turn my phone off or don't open my computer, nothing's changed. Obviously, the world has changed for me, but home looks and feels exactly the same.

It's funny because, based on the music I was making before, if you'd asked me who was the one gatekeeper or influencer whom I'd want to hear my music, I don't think Pharrell would be the first person I'd pick.

As a producer, as a songwriter, I've spent a lot of time either in my bedroom or in studios, alone.

If you're not changing, you're not growing; you're not being present. Change is essential.

Being 'back in my body' means being able to do the things I love, but do them in the way I love, and in my way, and in my time, giving myself the opportunity to just be me.

The only thing I wanted to do in my music is be human and communicate all the aspects of that, which often means being vulnerable.

I played in orchestras all through high school and taught myself how to play guitar.

New York is so strange. Every time I'm there, I very rarely see someone who's dressed cool.

Something really intense happened to me during the 'SNL' performance. It felt like the person I was made to be faced the person I'm becoming. It was the first time I felt like I was able to make any sense of ownership of my work.

I think so many of the themes from the natural world mimic emotional themes in our lives.

'Alaska' was filmed at my family's farm in Maryland; 'Dog Years' was filmed at the summer camp I grew up going to in Maine.

Writer's block is your self-critic getting in the way, because creativity will just flow otherwise.

Folk music usually romanticises the road. 'Back in my Body' tells the opposite story.

I've always been a very visual creator. I make mood boards or sit with coloured pencils and scribble and try and figure out what I'm trying to work through musically.

I just didn't really know who I was, so I didn't really know what I sounded like. And so I did a lot of writing, and I studied abroad, and I fell in love, and, like... I got to be like any other college student.

I want to have a long career. But that's based on wanting people to buy into my voice and not into a fabricated image.

Part of success is having a good story, and as a journalist, I totally understand. But it meant that my many, many years of focus and hard work got kind of prepackaged into a Cinderella story. I'm super grateful that it happened, but it left me feeling like I never got to be a full human in the experience.

Graduating from college and starting your life as an adult is a giant transition no matter what.

It's been really fun to see what happens to my body when I don't have an instrument attached to it.

The main rhythmic loop in 'Alaska' is me just patting on my jeans.

I find, as a woman and as a producer, I spend a lot of time convincing people I actually did the work.

I grew up in a really rural area in Maryland.

I spent my whole life in Maryland, but I wanted to experience more - fighting to get to urban areas where there was culture.

I feel really held in being vulnerable. That's always been the kind of music that I've gravitated to as well, but to feel really supported by my audience in that is a real privilege.

When I write songs, it happens very quickly, sometimes 10 to 15 minutes, and I draw inspiration from everything.

The thing about fans is you don't get to choose your own. But every time I meet a fan, I'm like, wow, we would totally be at the same house party.

I do play a lot of instruments. I started with the harp when I was young and then sort of moved to guitar and piano.

Friends came on the road, came on tour, came in my music videos; I got in the studio with them. I'm a really loyal person, and I don't have a really large group of friends, but the people I hang out with I really, really care about, and they continue to be a part of my life.

You need music that is compelling and intellectual, but you also need music that just feels good and you can laugh about and dance to, and I think I'm trying to marry the two in some way.

I spend a lot of time reading and try to make sure that I can get a little bit of alone time every day.

That's why people come to live music, right? To see something go wrong, something human, something vulnerable.

Ask me my influences, I always talk about Bjork and Beck because they're independent voices in the music industry.

Everybody thinks that touring is really glamourous, but I pretty much sit in a room all day. I have a sort of office where I do emails, and I go for a run, and then at the end of the night, I go to bed. It's not like some crazy party.

Ask about music growing up, I'll tell you I grew up playing classical music, and I didn't grow up in a musical household.

Lyrically, I've always thought about albums as a record of a period of time.

For me, it's important to ask what are you making, and what's the public's relationship to that. And I say public relationship because I don't really care so much about any sort of reception.

It's interesting because all I want to do is make music. I want to sit in my room, play the guitar, make beats, sing... And I have never made less music than when being a musician became my job.

When I'm joking around, I'll say I'm a pop star, because it's silly.

What I love more than anything in the entire world is making music. It's what I studied in school.

I'm a private person. I am quiet.

I've never made R&B. I've never made gospel. I've never made hip-hop - I don't think I'm going to, but I just want to keep challenging myself.

The craziest thing is I didn't know I could sing like this - ever. My voice has changed, or I've grown into it, woken up.