It's funny: the one time I got star-struck was when I met Snoop Dogg. I gave him a hug and said, 'I love you, man.'

That's how life is: there are peaks and valleys in life, and that's how I like to write songs.

I worked odd jobs delivering pizza, folding chairs, telemarketing, selling kitchen cutlery door to door.

I don't consider myself an entertainer. I consider myself an artist, and I think with that comes responsibility.

Every single song on 'Torches' was a little self-contained pop song, so there wasn't any fat on the songs; there wasn't a lot to cut.

We need to do a better job of loving each other beyond race, beyond belief, beyond our difference.

I remember, in middle school, I went to four different schools. That was a rough patch. But it's also what shaped me as a person.

During 'Torches,' I was more concerned with communicating the spirit of the song than the actual lyrics.

The phrase 'pumped up kicks,' man, I was excited when I came up with that.

In Morocco, a Muslim country, I got to hear the call to prayer five times a day. At first it felt kind of scary, kind of dangerous, because of the propaganda towards anything Muslim in the U.S. subconsciously coming out in me. By the end of the trip, it was so beautiful, and then not hearing it when I got back to L.A. really threw me off.

A timeless pop song is the hardest thing to do as a songwriter.

There are career waiters in Los Angeles, and they're making over $100,000 a year.

I feel like kids are getting more and more used to communicating through a glass screen than they are face-to-face, and that worries me a little.

Once I write something, I never try to write that same style again, because I get very schizophrenic musically.

I've written so many songs that are hopeful - songs that are, like, about an old man that gives all his possessions away because he wants to help people. I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' just to tell a different type of story.

I realized probably when I was, like, 20 years old that the hardest thing to do is to write a pop song - not, like, a candy-pop, throwaway pop song.

I've played so many gigs in front of around seven people. It's difficult to keep motivated, but it's all about growth. The love of music kept me going.

The jingles saved my life. When I got hired to do that, I was on top. I finally was making a living doing what I loved. Before that, it was so bleak; it got so dark in L.A. I was 25, been living there for seven years trying to make it, and getting really close to getting signed with different bands and as a solo artist only to have my hopes dashed.

'Torches' flowed together with interesting intros and outros. It was all very natural.

I could have pigeonholed us and wrote a whole record like 'Pumped Up Kicks,' and we would have been this breezy, nostalgic West Coast Beach Boys recreation band. That's not the type of writer I am. Once I try one style, I move on.

My aunts and uncles were like, 'You've got such a great voice - why don't you try out for 'American Idol?'' I'd say, 'Because I'm a songwriter, not a puppet.' Even if I won and became really successful off a show like that, I'd be miserable.

I was rambunctious - a boy's boy, full of energy. I wasn't a bad kid. I just liked to talk.

'Supermodel' was a hard record for me; it was an emotional record to write. I was purging a lot of stuff with that album, and I think the one thing I didn't really consider, that I'd be supporting it for two years and living in that state of mind every night.

When I was 21, I was in a pretty serious band, and we almost got signed - went to New York, showcased, all that - but didn't end up getting signed, and we broke up. I went back to the drawing board; I really took a hit from that whole experience.