I'm still looking for the rules of what is and isn't pop music. I'm pop. I mean, of course I am. What isn't pop? There should be a pop amnesty where everyone reclaims it.
You would think that anyone on a major label would be doing something, but when you speak of major label that means something to maybe a big pop star that might be getting some sort of benefit from the major. But we still don't get anything.
There's so many different kinds of songs that could be pop songs. I don't think pop songs should sound the same.
The songs that I'm able to write are the songs I'm able to write, whatever they may be. The path I've cut for myself is pop music - love-y pop music. That's what I enjoy doing. And I don't think I'm going to get sick of it anytime soon.
When I am seriously composing, sometimes a phrase will come into my head, a catch phrase. When I was writing pop songs for a few years, as a career, separate from my folksinging career, I used to write songs for pop singers.
I like the fact that I have the power to convey a lot of emotion through my songs. I like to channel that when I'm singing. I think it's just a mix of R&B, soul, but then I kind of move more into the pop world and electronic pop and stuff like that.
In the little rural town I grew up in, I missed out on the pop music of the time, the '80s, and now enjoy in retrospect. It's as an adult that I've opened it up to dance, hip-hop, R&B, and even big pop songs.
I think pop music was going through a phase where it was like pop but dance-hall or pop but R&B. But, no, I just want a pop song.
I remember listening to 'Songs In The Key Of Life' as a kid. Stevie Wonder has an ability to manipulate pop into something globally obtainable. Anyone can listen and enjoy it because there's something for everyone. That woke me up to the possibilities of pop music.
I think 'pop' can be a bit of a dirty word. People are very cool in Australia. They don't like to admit that they like pop. There are people who listen to Triple J and cool stuff like that, but commercial radio is massive, and if you look at the sales of the pop songs every week, people love pop music.
We're quite different from each other. Camila is the pop girl, Lauren likes the indie sound, Normani and I love R&B, and Ally is the pop-country, kind of church girl.
Sometimes I forget that the label's been around so long that some of the bands they're singing now might be influenced by the first wave of Sub Pop bands. Is there anyone on that label that you look up to or borrow from?
For me, I've written and produced for pop singers, but, like, female pop - I love that. I think it's putting me in the game that I love girl pop. All my writing is inspired by it.
I sing songs from the theater and pop songs. When I say 'pop songs,' I mean from the 90's. And I tell jokes. So it's sort of a stand up show meets a concert - not your traditional lounging across a piano cabaret show. It's much looser.
You can only write so many pop songs before they all sound the same. I got to a point where something overtly melodic and straightforward sounded sort of cheesy to me. Pop songs seemed too manufactured.
That's the thing: pop music has sometimes had a bad reputation for being about a lot of other stuff than the music. And I am just a lover of pop music. I love pop. I love big choruses. Dramatic choruses - they're the best thing in the world. And I do this because I love making music and performing the songs.