I'm painfully a realist but ruthlessly an optimist. I think maybe it's because of my faith - I've always got the hope that there is something out there to make it all worthwhile.

I enjoy changing; I think it's more fun to try something different than to just do what you did last time. As an artist, you just want to keep creating, keep finding a place that really inspires you that feels fresh and new, and keep it exciting.

The problem in this country is people gravitate toward one genre, and that's what they embrace. I don't understand that. If you hit me with Bell Biv Devoe meets country, well, I like the sound of that concept.

I love to play the songs that got me to where I am. I like to take a little bit from all of my records and mix it up.

There's something incredibly vulnerable about middle school for me. We're really impressionable during that period. The cement's still wet, so to speak, and a lot of things later in life are born during that season.

I do know great books help shape who I am and how I look at life.

All of my acoustic playing came from my songwriting. All of the chords I've learned and all of the voicings I play them in are a direct result of composing.

I didn't start writing music until I was a sophomore in college. I would steal my roommate's guitar and sit on the front porch and kind of blend this weird spoken word and these little melodies over simple chords; that really started my whole journey as a musician.

It's silly to throw things out or label things. You know, is U2 a Christian band, or was Johnny Cash a Christian country singer? I don't know, but they're pretty open about their faith.

I don't think, to be a traveler, you have to reject setting roots up.

I had the lyric 'Chip Don't Go' and a few words, and my wife came in and said that it sounded like a good song. I thought I'd finish writing it up and posting it to YouTube. I didn't realize it was going to take off like it did.

There's this song called 'Brad Chester,' which is like the depths of my family. It comes from a very personal place.

I thought my second record was good, but it didn't have that smash hit we did on the first one that somehow found its way onto tons of formats of radio stations.

I'm really influenced by '90s hip hop. A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were my heroes growing up.

I never wanted to be on an exclusively Christian label.

When I started forming my own taste, there was a period in high school when I listened to only rap and hip-hop, like A Tribe Called Quest.

I never got too specialized but did like the Southern Gothic writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.

I grew up in Oregon, so there was always a lot of that folksy, Bob Marley stuff. There was a mural of Bob Marley on a wall at my high school.

I was an English major, and I always wrote poems.

My songs have a layer of melancholy.

When I set out to write, I want to write something that will rip your heart out and connect with you. Great songs connect beyond genre and style.

God found me when I was at my lowest point. That was the first time in my life when I really felt like I understood who Jesus was - it was more than just knowing about Him: I felt like He met me in that time and place.

I'm striving toward this acting thing. I'm definitely gonna work hard on that, whatever comes my way, I'm gonna work hard on it.

I'm on my way to a place where I'd never dreamed I'd be, and that's perfection.