I never set out to be a cult cool artist. I always made music that I thought was pop.

I've always wanted to write pop music. I never wanted to be cool or make a hipster record.

My music was never considered cool, but I've always felt that connection with the audience.

In general, people that we meet in person are pretty cool people - always very respectful, just happy to be there, happy to enjoy the music.

I'm always trying to think of something clever and fun to do with the music. There's so many cool things musicians and artists can do with their products.

I always felt out of place. I wasn't a cool kid, but I wasn't a nerd, either. I had trouble finding my place. But when I found the music, I had a place of my own.

I had always had an affinity for series in literature, and I thought it would be really cool to incorporate what I loved about books into the story of music, to pile it together.

My favorite thing is when cartoon fans show up to my live gigs! They are always the most kick-butt audience members 'cause they're not trying to act all cool like a lot of the music fans do!

The blues is the foundation for a lot of things. Things have branched off. It's cool how music grows, but the foundation is always there. It's not going anywhere. The blues is always going to be relevant.

You always have in the back of your mind that would be cool if you get recognized. But you can't concentrate on any of those things. You've got to just keep playing and doing your music and the rest is just a bonus.

Even before Pentatonix, I always thought that I would be out here in New York doing Broadway and doing musical theater. That was what gave me the passion for music in the first place, so it's been really, really, cool.

I went through all these different phases. But it always felt like I was impersonating something, so I went back to some of the music I grew up with, like music from South Africa and the '80s stuff. I stopped suppressing it, and I stopped trying to be cool.

I feel like my music is just an extension of my acting. I treat the songs like scenes that tell a story... it's very similar. My favorite thing is when cartoon fans show up to my live gigs! They are always the most kick-butt audience members 'cause they're not trying to act all cool like a lot of the music fans do! It's refreshing!!

Music's always going to evolve, and we can't really stop that, so we have to figure out what's the next thing and how we move towards that as opposed to just being like, 'Oh, cool: let's just continue making tear-out EDM hits that are gonna last 2 months, and then somebody else is making the exact same thing under a different name.'

It's deeper than the music when it comes to me and Mustard. He's like a big brother, and I'm so thankful to have a mentor like him to advise me. Even though he gives me a lot of creative control, I always go to him like, 'Do you like this?' It's so cool that it's always a collaborative effort. He never makes me feel pressured or anything.

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