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" I was always into poetry and writing. So the urgency of spoken word is something that really has always appealed to me. "

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" 'Nothing Left to Lose' was an album that I wrote in my bedroom, and you don't know who is listening or who cares. "

" I started writing music in a season of my life where people were telling me I wasn't defined by mistakes, and God really loved me and was fighting for me, and there was a journey to be had with that. And I don't know of a more important message. "

" 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've always been a writer. I've always done writing or spoken-word, hip-hop stuff with my friends. "

" Growing up in Eugene, Oregon, there was everything from The Notorious B.I.G. to Weezer playing in my car. "

" More than any other instrument, the relationship between an acoustic guitar and a microphone is super-important. The kind of mics that you use and your placement of the mics to the guitar can radically alter your sound. "

" I can't help but do things my own way. "

" Ultimately, when you write from a vantage point of faith, humility, and openness to the world around you, people have to respond because those same truths are instilled in them. "

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

" I never wanted to be on an exclusively Christian label. "

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

" The first year I moved to Nashville, I started playing these songwriter nights with people like Nickel Creek, Duncan Sheik, and even Ryan Adams... That was the first place I really started playing music, and I had to really step up my game. Really quick. Or get kicked off the stage. "

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

" I think my faith is a huge part of my music. But for me, it didn't make sense to be in any specific market. I write songs for a lot of different kinds of people. "

" When I was in college, I wanted to study film. My first passion was to be a cinematographer. So maybe there's something innate in my music where it partners well with images. "

" I was an English major in college, so I really liked spoken word and poetry; it was what I did before I wrote music. "

" I think coming from the Northwest is something that's born in your blood. On my mom's side, I'm, like, a sixth-generation Oregonian. My family came over in the covered wagons, 'Oregon Trail'-video-game style. Maybe the pioneer mentality runs in my blood because they were all pioneers. "

" I read about two reviews early on when my first record came out, and it just freaked me out, good and bad, so I've never really kept up with that side of it. "

" Generally, the songs that are the scariest ones are the ones that people connect to. "

" I've had moments in my career when I've made more money and had more success than at other times, but I've realized being happy has very little to do with any of that. "

" I think, in a lot of ways, hip-hop is interesting to me because it's like the modern-day folk music. "

" I think the way I love talking about my faith is through my story because I think that's all we have to work with sometimes. I think it's the most moving way to share your story, too - is what you know, what you've seen and heard and tasted and felt. "

" I think you can hear all my hip hop influences in 'Just Kids.' "

" There are a lot of great recording artists, like Jack White and Jack Johnson, who stay confined inside a very small box, but I'm more like Bon Iver, who recorded an album with programmed drums, and the next record was totally organic. I get that. "

" Even on tour, where I perform songs from 'City Of Black And White,' I still do songs from 'Nothing Left To Lose.' I never turned my back on that material. On some albums, you change - that's all. The trick is to follow your heart and do what feels right. "

Black And White

" 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. "

" 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 didn't know music would end up being my job, but I loved it so much I wanted to do it every day. "

" Songs like 'Learn To Love Again' and 'Rochester' and some of the more gut-wrenching ones deal with the pain of the younger times of your life... trying to make sense of some the stuff we probably all went through. "