When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it.
If we want the best pitcher, let's get Bobby Feller. If want the best football player, let's get Jimmy Brown; the best basketball player, let's get Bill Russell. If we want the guy who can do the best job for the United States - let's get Donald Trump.
I can play the main stage at the Newport Folk Festival in front of 10,000 people and do all the gigs and stuff I want to do. Then I can go home and get toilet paper on a Sunday morning and not get hassled.
There is a diverse meaning to the lyrics as well. A lot of the stuff I write is from a personal level but is not really anything that I care about if people get or not so I write alot of the stuff as metaphors based in Viking mythology and Viking History which is sort of my main interest in life and sort of my main atmosphere in life.
But I'd play on everything from pop records to a lot of the glam stuff to rock stuff to classical stuff. I used to get called to do all those things, it was great.
I call 'Community' the best day job in the world, because between takes, I get to write music. I get to write sketches. I get to write movies. It's the best job ever.
In the years that I've seen concerts, when I've paid to see somebody I want to see, there would be a certain amount of songs I'd want to hear. So whether it's stuff I want to play every night or not - or stuff I've been playing for years or stuff you get tired of playing - you have to play what people pay for and make it fair for them.
When I was 12, I used to be the best friend of the most beautiful girls, but just the best friend. They would always come to me to cry about a guy who broke their heart, and I would just be sitting there thinking, 'I wish I was the guy and not the best friend.'
I'm more of the girl who's always in the friend zone, and I try to help if my other friend wants to get with someone. I can be a bit cheeky and say stuff that embarrasses my friends, but I'm normally the girl who guys like to be friends with, so I become friendly with the guy and then go, 'Oh, this is my other friend.'
Everybody struggles with get tiring as a musician having to play the same songs over and over again on one level or another. That is why you're cast to write the best songs you can. It keeps it going for you. My old man used to tell me be careful what you write you might have to play it for the rest of your life. That is always a challenge and the best way to remedy it is to write.
I grew up on a street called Cedar Wood Road and by coincidence my best friends that are around the age 10 became a guy called Bono and another guy called Guggi. It was music again. The fact that pulled us together. They found me quite interesting because I had the right albums underneath my arm. Those days where you carry the latest David Bowie album or Roxie music album as you go to school. I mean you can't play an album at school but you were being cool just showing, "Look what I got."
It takes time for brown people and people of different ethnicities to get into the Hollywood world, which is predominantly Caucasian and African American.
Sometimes you're not always on or at your best, especially during auditions. So if you go in and you don't nail it, even if they're like, 'We don't need to see you again,' get a friend, get a video camera, and film you doing the stuff again.
Songwriting is like editing. You write down all this stuff - all this bad, stupid stuff - and then you have to get rid of everything except the very best.
In the years that Ive seen concerts, when Ive paid to see somebody I want to see, there would be a certain amount of songs Id want to hear. So whether its stuff I want to play every night or not - or stuff Ive been playing for years or stuff you get tired of playing - you have to play what people pay for and make it fair for them.
For those of you with a guy best friend, ask yourself this: is he really just been your best friend? Has he always been your best friend? Is that how he sees it? Is that how you want to see it? I firmly believe that guys and girls can be great friends without love getting in the way but there are those couples who do fall for their best friends. Are you one of them?
I get asked all the time how much sleep I get. That's what happens when you write a book called 'The Sleep Revolution,' travel around the world talking about it, and found a company committed to ending our global burnout crisis.