I Had Very Literal Parents And I

I Was Just A Very Dark Kid. My Family Was Complicated.

I Never Wanted To Grow A Thicker Skin; I Felt A Real Sense Of Pride In My Thin Skin, And In A Weird Way, I Still Do, Because It's My Thin Skin That Allows Me To Empathize With Other People. It's The Thing That Allows Me To Create Vulnerable Art. It's The Thing That Allows Me To Create Other Feelings And Make Songs That Actually Grab People And Touch People. I Feel Like I've Spent My Life Fighting That Thicker Skin Because I Don't Want To Become An Embittered Asshole.

What I Have Found Is, So Much Of That Is Like A Chinese Finger Trap: The More You Play To The Dark, The More You Will Get Trapped In The Dark, And If You Just Play To The Light And Focus On The People That Don't Misunderstand You And Focus On The Audience That Does Celebrate You And Focus On The People Who Aren't Trying To Tear You Down, All That Other Stuff Eventually Erases Itself Because It Has Nothing To Feed On.

Comparing Yourself To The People Like You, Comparing Yourself To The People Who Aren't Like You, Looking At How Many Records You've Sold, Looking At The Venue Size You're Selling Out. None Of That Can Even Remotely Measure How Happy You Are.

There Are So Many People, So Many Artists, So Many Magazines, So Many Theater Companies, So Many People Trying To Raise Money For So Many Things That It's Easy To Look Around And Just Feel Powerless Or Helpless, Because Even If You Have Some Resources, You Can't Help Everybody.