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" The first record blew up and sold really well. 'City of Black & White' didn't sell as well, and that's when you wonder, 'Did I peak already?' "

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" 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. "

" The criticism people could have of my music maybe is that it's somewhat schizophrenic at times. And if you don't like that, it could bother you. "

" When 'Young Love' came out, I was really excited, and it has been really special. "

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

" When my first record came out, it was in the middle of the real Muse, Keane, British thing, and that beat-driven thing wasn't really that cool at the moment. "

" When I first started writing music, it was to express that. I was trying to find God and trying to find meaning in my life. That's what my music was about. It wasn't to entertain. "

" 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 am a micromanager, and I love being involved in every detail of my life, but in the big picture, you realize how little control you have. 'Air I Breathe' is about those moments of surrender where you get to something that is bigger than you, and you don't have answers for it. "

" 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. "

" 'City Of Black And White' was me trying to do something more mature, more adult contemporary. "

Black And White

" 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 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. "

" Paul Simon is the king! "

" When we tour, there's always this unique quality to every town you visit... Touring, you get a sense of a collective identity for different cities. That's one of the things I love about my job. "

" I don't know how much I'm connected to the hip-hop scene, but I definitely lend from that urgency. "

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

" '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 love Michigan. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

" I've always sought to get after something that's foundational in people. That comes through my faith, through my belief in life, through trying to hit something that's true every time. I think that's really where you move people, when you touch on something that's true, that's not based on fluff or based on a moment or a movement. "

" I've never been one to learn scales and do exercises. Maybe I'm lazy, but I just don't take to that kind of thing. Learning other people's songs is enjoyable, and my fingers tend to go to new places because I'm not playing my music, the stuff that comes naturally to me. "

" I don't spend afternoons practicing my guitar to get better. I do read, though, to get inspiration for my lyrics. "