If you've followed us from when we started playing live in October 2010, you will notice that there has been numerous changes over the years.
When I look back at some of the Chicks stuff, it's the early stuff we did where we kind of giggle and go, 'You know what? Those were the good old days.'
I'm really maturing into soul music. It's not my attempt or karaoke try. I feel like I really embody the music now that I am 36.
I have this theory about us. When we started writing our own songs, we were 17 years old. When you're 17, you write songs for other 17-year-olds. We stopped growing musically when we were 17. We still write songs for 17-year-olds.
I think being a little older and a little more determined and being a little more evolved in my case and maturity in the kind of music I was doing and how I was doing it really helped to keep me grounded and with an audience that could appreciate what I was doing, who grew with me and evolved with me and kept me alive and around.
A lot of times, when a band finds success with a certain style or sound, they have a really hard time breaking away from that to grow as artists.
There are a lot of people holding on to the old Jessie J - whatever that means - but I think there's a lot more people realizing what I'm about. I think people like it.
We started the band when I was about 19 or 20. At that age, it would have been kind of hard to imagine a lot of the stuff that I've written. We were playing garage rock. I wanted to dash out three chords and scream. But if you do that for 20 years, what's the point?
I've been singing since I was 12. And I think that all the information is finally starting to chill out. And I don't have to be fancy. I can just kind of do things and simplify things and try to be the best singer I can be.
To be honest with you, I don't have one track that I consider better than the next because all I'm trying to do is still grow as an artist. I got way better since the early nineties, as far as putting words together. My best energy probably was the '90s, because I was new.
I consider the first 20 performances just learning the piece. Think about it this way: If you think about a pianist who plays a Schubert sonata through his whole lifetime - if you listen to Rubenstein or Horowitz playing their repertoire later in their life, you understand the richness with which they play that music, and how differently they must have played it when they were younger.
'Law 3' shows my growth as a rapper. I don't really like maintaining, so on every project, I'm going to show you my growth.
I grew up listening pretty much just to pop music. But the older I've gotten, the more varied my musical tastes have become.
On 'Van Halen,' I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning,' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger.
Nirvana is next level. The songs are really cool to connect with on a more mature level, and I don't think I really understood that when I was 15.
Pianos tend to get better as they age, the more you play them. They grow into their sound.
Basically, a band's first record is them coming together and really learning everything, and then, after they're on the road and really become a unit, the next record slams.
I never necessarily played the music I listen to. I've always liked a lot of soul, roots-reggae, alternative psych-rock, and I feel like, with age, that's kind of come.
Any band on their first couple records is just trying to keep up with their inspiration.
When I made the first album, I was 24, and at that age, you have nothing to say. I just played the music I loved and tried to do it justice.
What I appreciate about Sleater-Kinney is that we did six records, and they all felt different. It was a band that was able to encapsulate different sensibilities because we were focusing on it as music and art and not as a statement.
The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play.
The older I get, the more I just like plugging directly into my amp. I'm tired of trying to impress myself with weird sounds. It's about the notes more.
Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it.
Even on tour, where I perform songs from 'City Of Black And White,' I still do songs from 'Nothing Left To Lose.' I never turned my back on that material. On some albums, you change - that's all. The trick is to follow your heart and do what feels right.
