It really helps me to get into the character of the record when I have a designated look. It just really simplifies things for me.

I felt like onstage I have to have a certain amount of anonymity, like, personal anonymity, to feel loose and free. When you're up there with people who've known you for a decade, and you make a bad joke and you hear the cackling behind the drums, it's hard to get lost in the moment.

I demo all of my songs on Garage Band, where I pretty much play everything - not very well, but I manage to hammer out a drum beat and a bass idea.

My mother had a great vinyl collection, and she was constantly playing female singer-songwriters. I first learned about classic song structures by listening to them, and Laura Nyro particularly stood out. Her voice was outside what you'd usually hear on the radio; that really appealed to me.

In your mid-30s, you have to take inventory, or you'll stumble.

It's funny how a song can start in your mind, and then when it goes through all the filters, it ends up in a totally different spot.

When I was a teenager, I went to Europe on a backpacking trip by myself, and I met a woman who was following Sebadoh. It was the early 1990s, and that was my introduction to indie rock.

I've always just had sort of a dark take on life, I suppose, and hopefully, the music transcends that in a way.

It sounds cheesy, but music has saved me in a lot of ways. If I had just continued acting, I don't think I would be alive.

That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That's the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That's you on the cover. If it sucks, it's your fault.

I have a great work ethic - from watching Lucille Ball, not necessarily my own family.

When you're talking about your own music every day, listening to bands, going to festivals, you can kind of lose sight of your initial connection with music. Instrumental music - especially jazz - helps me refocus.

I come from a duo, actually, quite literally. My parents are Linda and Eddie, and they had an act in Vegas called 'Love's Way.'

For me personally, I just try to prove myself in my work. I'm just trying to get better at what I do, and hopefully that will impact women in music, and hopefully the girls in the crowd will see my up there as a bandleader and think, 'Wow, maybe I can do that one day.'

I was a big fan of 'Days of Our Lives' growing up.

Sometimes you don't understand what you're going through until you're on the other side of it.

I'm a huge reggae fan. I want to go to Jamaica and make, like, Bob Marley 'One Love' positive songs. That's what the world needs.

I love kids, but there's always time for them later. You can always adopt; you can have a puppy. The songs are my children.

I've always tried to get around writing love songs, I guess because I've always had a hard time saying, 'I love you.'

I'm not a religious person by any means. But I'm curious.

I write music, really, to make myself feel better.

Losing your parent is unlike anything.

I'm more in the Stones camp than the Beatles camp.

In the past, like for the last Rilo Kiley record, 'Under the Blacklight,' I wore exclusively hot pants because the themes in that record were the underbelly of Los Angeles.