I'm a hopeful cynic.

There are some concerns that are universal. Everyone wants to be loved, and everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere in the world. Everyone wants to do something and feel like they have a sense of purpose. These are just the things that I think about and the things that make their way into my songwriting.

I meet people in my daily life, people who seem to experience some change and some growth on a personal level, and that gives me hope.

We do need to think about how we have security - everyone has a right to that - but we also need to think about how we maintain civil rights and personal freedom.

Some folks call her a runaway. A failure in the race. But she knows where her ticket takes her. She will find her place in the sun

Everyone is looking for connections between the songs. I don't usually approach a record as a concept. There's no overriding theme I'm trying to represent. It's all about the individual songs.