I love feeding off the audience, and to me, what's the point if you're not going to think of the fans. Anyone can play music in their house, but you put it out because you want interact with your fans. And, as an artist, you get so much from your fans.
Obviously, fans are the beginning and end for any artist. The minute your fans embrace you and accept you, you begin this ride of being in music and having a career doing something you love. You get to go be a kid and live out your dreams by performing music for fans who come out to your shows.
We love to come out on 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg' because it's so hyped. You just get your adrenaline going, and the fans are excited.
When you get a walk-off homer, you get to do whatever you want. You need to be excited about it. You don't get too many of those, so you need to enjoy them when they come.
I'm the type of person who, if somebody offers me a free meal, I get excited because you never know where your next free meal is going to come from.
My hip-hop fans are a little spoiled - they want a particular level of lyricism and energy that I'm known for. When they don't get that, it takes a little time for them to open up to it. But electronic fans are as free as the music. On social media, they were so excited and loud; they're in awe.
I love 'Sons of Anarchy.' I was so excited to be able to be on this show, just because I personally watch it. Of course, I come from Disney, and I have a lot of young fans, but I do have fans who have grown with me as well.
The songs will come as they come, and I'm excited because I haven't gotten to be really creative in a while. I'm excited to get back and do what I do and just write a song.
You are still lucky - you have a certain type of people who keep buying your music - but then you can get typecast and have to keep making that same music, and you can change only slightly. It's risky to bounce around and change your type of music.
I thought "I don't need to reach out to my fans, I don't need to have that dialogue with them." But as a musician, you have to constantly - especially since my music is not on the same level as my acting - you have to connect with your fans. I actually feel like I have developed friendships through Twitter, people that I've worked with I can kind of keep up with them. I've totally turned a corner. I get it. And Instagram.
Sometimes listening to music can motivate you. It can. But if you're a musician, that isn't always the way to get new ideas because you don't want to take somebody else's ideas. You need to find your own. So if you go to different artistic mediums, whether it's dance or it's visual arts or films or books, stories, sometimes it gets you hearing things, hearing progressions that you wouldn't come up with if you were just listening to other music because you don't want to copy progressions you've just heard.
I don't think that I have much power at all, and I don't think that I'm trying to do anything outside of making my fans happy with the music that I write and record and, of course, I want to branch out and I want to have more fans, so I try to get interviews and I try to talk to different outlets and I try to get my music everywhere it can be.
Whenever I do my live shows, I feel artistically inspired and excited because I get to do and say a lot of things that I can't if I just make a record. A lot of times it's the only way people are going to hear my music because you don't get to have your music played on Top 40 if you're above the age of 35.
I want to make the music that people remember, and it doesn't need a trend; it doesn't need to be constantly hyped. There's no time period for it. That's the type of music I want to make.
Yeah, um, I do twitter because I want people to, you know, get to know me, my fans, or my fans to get to know me, you know, just see what type of person I am. You know, hopefully be more on an intimate level with me as opposed to a distant level.
I noticed that the crowds in the US seem to do a lot more moshing than European fans. But it's also different from venue to venue and really hard to say.