TONES AND I

No one could have ever prepared me for the whole world judging me and comparing to other artists. But what's most important is that you have to be a good person and care about others and carry yourself well.

I was living in my van, playing on the street for almost two years.

People were trying to write songs to knock Lil Nas X off his perch; I didn't try to do that.

Thank you to Australia for letting me know that I'm OK just the way that I am.

When I was busking, when I was paying for petrol with silver coins or when I was sneaking into hostels so I could park my van up and sleep in it, I had the best time of my life.

I'm just going to do what I do and be who I am.

Just because my song was being played on the radio didn't mean I had a load of money. You don't get royalties overnight.

People like me for who I am, I don't wanna change that, if anything I just wanna hone my craft and get better at it.

Sometimes I don't think that I'm the most relatable female artist.

I never thought that I would have the No 1 song in the world.

I have confidence in the songs that I've written and I'm not going to change anything.

I didn't even think my music was good enough to get on the radio in Australia.

People think you should be happy all the time but you can't.

No one could have ever prepared me for the whole world judging me and comparing me to other artists.

Dance Monkey' is about the bad side of busking.

I worked in retail for a bit and then I busked for two years. As soon as I started, I thought, 'I'll do busking until I'm 50 because this is the best job in the world.'

Streaming services are very important.

I didn't think I had a weird voice until everyone started saying I did.

Dance Monkey' showed me that I'm good enough.

I thought the world of live performance and busking was where I was going to thrive. I had no idea that digital streaming platforms and radio and that world would be for me, you know?

Now I am at the point people are believing in my music, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't talk about what I believe in.

I want to play the Super Bowl halftime show in America.

One day I was at the park with my family, all my cousins and stuff, in Frankston... We were all just singing a song and my aunty was like 'oh guys, she can actually hold a note.' I think that's the earliest memory of someone actually pointing me out as someone that has an ability to sing. I was probably like 7 years old.

The pre-chorus always flows and the chorus is always a little bit harder for me because I put pressure on myself. I didn't know that there was a proper way to do these things, so I just write what sounds good to me in my ears and then I hope to God that someone else likes it too.

Usually I get inspired by singles and not artists, but I love Macklemore.