I think the first CD I actually went into a store to pick out myself was a Good Charlotte album... I went through a tomboy punk phase in the fourth grade.
Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the 'I'm a Fraud' phase. You go through the 'I'll Never Finish' phase. And every once in a while you think, 'What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?'
A lot of my friends loved Pearl Jam, so whenever I'd hang out with them, that was usually what CD - not album - back then, it was what CD, maybe even tape, but what CD was playing.
I was a really good student, first, second grade, third grade, and then fourth grade a little bit. And then I don't know what happened. I became a very terrible student. I wish I took it more serious.
Good Charlotte are a band with punk values - they look it, they grew up on the music, and they believe in the punk ethos.
On the first album, we were trying to do a pop-punk album with a classical influence. We'd say 'pop-punk,' and people would say, 'No, you're like burlesque-cabaret-punk,' or, 'It's baroque-pop,' and we were like, 'That sounds way cooler.'
My screen name in fourth grade on AIM was 'chickmagnet4life,' so it started in fourth grade... and that's '4 life.'
I started going to chess clubs when I was in fourth grade. From fourth grade to seventh grade, I was in chess club.
When I made 'Who Needs Pictures,' my first album, I had been west of the Mississippi River one time in my life, and that was in fourth grade. We traveled to California for vacation and stayed with some friends of my parents. It was culture shock, and it was different.
While researching the project [The Fourth Phase] I stumbled across this amazing research by a scientist called Dr Gerard Pollack who had done studies on what he called a 'fourth phase' of water.
Two to four classes each offseason - just trying to chip away. There are times when I think, 'Man, I don't need to be doing this. Why am I doing this to myself?' But to fight through that and come out and make a good grade, it feels worth it. Hopefully something good comes out of it one day.
I think the first album I bought was The Jackson Five, but the first CD I was given was 'Cotton-Eyed Joe,' the single! Bless my mum - don't know what she was thinkin'!
There were definitely curveballs in my growing up, from a family aspect. My parents got divorced when I was in second grade. I moved around a lot. Actually, I went to about four different schools when I was in fourth grade.
I gravitated to Judy Blume early on. 'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing' was my favorite, with a realistic and relatable protagonist in Peter Hatcher. When I reached the fourth grade, I made the leap to science fiction and never looked back.
I don't miss anything about the 1960s, not really. I did it. It's like asking, 'Do you miss the fourth grade?' I loved the fourth grade when I was in it, but I don't want to do it again.
I think I did realize that early on, and then I went through a fun phase where I was figuring out who I was and the different sides of myself. I think like most women, I bought into a certain ideal of beauty that I didn't quite fit into, and I tried to pretzel myself and alter myself to be what I was told is beautiful, and then I realized that you are in control of what you think is beautiful.
That's kind of a nostalgia thing. Nirvana was my first favorite band, in third or fourth grade. Then I got out of them. But one day in college a few buddies and myself all started listening to them again and it blew me away. They still stand out as my favorite band ever.