In college, I faced an interesting problem. I wanted to play music all the time and yet I wasn't ready for anyone to hear it. To remedy this, I took to retreating to stairwells as a safe place to sing and write music. It was there that I wrote most of my songs in college and really grew into an artist.
Kina Grannis
Related The market is still waiting for HSBC results, which will have a big impact on the direction of the m... ANDREW TO Property shares had a technical rebound, but interest rate concerns will still affect properties unt... ANDREW TO Bank of China's results were quite good; double-digit growth can be taken as good results for a bank... ANDREW TO The index tried to challenge 18,000 but failed, so that triggered profit taking. Tokyo's slide also ... ANDREW TO Trading seems to be focusing on selective counters because investors are cautious amid interest rate... ANDREW TO We're seeing a minor technical rebound after Wall Street rebounded from two days of losses. The key ... ANDREW TO Some investors have returned to pick up the stock at bargain prices. ANDREW TO I think the take-up for the placement is not too good and other property developers may be discourag... ANDREW TO We are afraid that our freedoms and liberties will be infringed in the future. ANDREW TO I think there was some minor selling pressure on telecom stocks as the market continued to see a wea... ANDREW TO Get this (economic plan) passed. Later on, we can all debate it. , TO NEW HAMPSHIRE LEGISLATORS I was probably a B student in high school, but it wasn't until I got to college that I said, ... GIULIANA RANCIC When I wanted to audition for a dinner-theater junior troupe in my hometown, I needed to have a piec... AUDRA MCDONALD It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I wa... RITA DOVE When I first decided I wanted to make beats and write songs and stuff like that, it wasn't like ... G-EAZY I was in choir in school. I kind of just did it. I already knew I wanted to sing. My music program i... LEA MICHELE I wanted to do 'Oh Shenandoah' because that's the town I was born in - as a tribute to m... CHARLIE HADEN When I was in college, I wanted to write for 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien,' and I was ... MIKE BIRBIGLIA I like to sing. I write music. Country songs. You have to if you're in Nashville. It's part ... JIM VARNEY Music, in Mexico, just wasn't working out. So, I fell into acting and I just fell in love with i... ADAN CANTO I was in school, but I wasn't into school. I wasn't doing what I wanted to be doing in schoo... DYLAN O'BRIEN When I was growing up, I wasn't in bands, and had really no intention of ever doing music. I wen... K. FLAY I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I never took music lessons. I was just playing around in front ... LYKKE LI At art college, I started to do music and then painting and drawing - and that would have been my id... SEAN BEAN My father left his piano at the house when he left, and I wasn't allowed to play it when he was ... PRINCE All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w... JOAN DIDION We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It... COLSON WHITEHEAD What would I have wanted to say if I had had the opportunity to see him one more time? I would like ... LISA J. SHULTZ I just always knew I wanted to be an actor. I gave my Emmy acceptance speech when I was 11. But, I w... AZITA GHANIZADA Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it SARA SHEPARD I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, namely the kingdom of England. ELIZABETH I (SPOKEN TO HER PARLAMENT) I was kind of torn between playing music or playing college football. I was going to college and rea... BRANTLEY GILBERT I had between 20 and 40 songs for 'Detox,' and I just couldn't feel it. Usually, I can h... DR. DRE Seeing eye to an eye is a must, especially when there lies a case, or an intent, to meet; even by in... PRIYAVRAT THAREJA I tried to go to college in the U.K. a couple of times, but at that point, I think I was a little di... BILLY HOWLE I really wanted to be a doctor, until my freshman year of college when I realized that while I was g... MARISSA MAYER If it wasn't for Kenny Rogers, I don't think I would be in country music. He was that guy wh... DARIUS RUCKER I still had this idea that there was a whole world of marvelous golden people somewhere, as far ahea... RICHARD YATES I grew up with my little brother, and we were raised by my grandmother. I was an insider for real. I... BRYSON TILLER I was a good 30 pounds overweight throughout high school, and it wasn't until I was going away t... DAPHNE OZ I wanted to be a cheerleader, like my sister was - all the most popular and beautiful girls are chee... PAULA COLE I want to choreograph, I want to direct, I want to act, I want to write music, I want to play music,... DEREK HOUGH I took a writing class in college, liked it, and my first year out of school I couldn't get a jo... ZOE KAZAN I suppose for me as an artist it wasn't always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, m... DAVID BOWIE I think the world is ready for some rock 'n' roll. Some real time guys that play their own i... VINCE NEIL I don't sing melodically. Rhyme pattern is how I sing. I also write like a lyricist or an MC bec... ERYKAH BADU I never thought of having platinum albums and winning awards. I just wanted to write songs and sing ... RANDY TRAVIS Ever since I was a kid, this was all I wanted to do. I've wanted to do music. I wanted to sing. ... BRUNO MARS When I first started making music, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write... JULIANA HATFIELD I was going to go to college and graduate and move to New York and do the Broadway thing. That's... SAM TSUI It's such a cliche thing to say. I want to choreograph, I want to direct, I want to act, I want ... DEREK HOUGH I've sort of had an investigatory relationship with being a musician. I really wasn't sure w... ERIC AVERY I used to write a lot of songs. I was an English major in college. I was a deluded poet for a year. ... PAUL DANO I studied religions and all kinds of other things in college. I took a Shakespearean villain course ... CHRIS WOOD Never thought acting was something you could make a living at. It wasn't until I was in college,... ED ASNER I really wish that I would have gone to college. Even my son, who's into rap himself, I tell him... BARBARA LYNN By the time I was ready for college, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I think I secretly wante... WILL FERRELL I was very obsessed with my music, and I think that, as a young girl, I really wanted to get into th... BEBE REXHA I wasn't really interested in girls. Only football. I was just enjoying football all the time. T... PAUL POGBA I have a younger brother and sister who actually play in my band, and we were always into Disney mus... LAURA MVULA I love the whole aspect of music, especially the singing; I never get tired of finding new songs to ... JOHNNY MATHIS To me, all writing is like music. And especially dialogue. I studied music in college; that is what ... DIRK BENEDICT Wake every morning with the same feeling. Live up high and fly on top of the ceiling. I just know th... ANA CLAUDIA ANTUNES I took temp jobs, recorded a demo in the evenings and eventually shopped a record deal. All I knew w... NATASHA BEDINGFIELD Using assistive technology with your child prevents your child from missing out on content solely be... SANDRA K. COOK I used to make my grandparents pay a dollar to watch me sing 'Grease' songs and 'Somewhe... ZOE KRAVITZ I can't help the look of accusation in your eyes LULLABY TO AN ANXIOUS CHILD My grandma said - when I was really young and I'd sing along to the radio - why do you sing in a... EMMA WATSON For me, when I grew up playing music, I played music in church and people were shouting and having a... RANDY OWEN I see a young man playing 'Plaisir d'Amour' on guitar. I knew I didn't want to go to... JOAN BAEZ My Dublin wasn't the Dublin of sing-songs, traditional music, sense of history and place and com... COLIN FARRELL I didn't finish college; my parents didn't graduate college - we didn't have a pot to pi... BARBARA KRUGER I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I start... TAYLOR SWIFT I wasn't writing the music. Ed would write a piece of music. I'd listen to it and come up wi... SAMMY HAGAR There was a period when I'd just come out of college where I'd been playing classical guitar... ANDY SUMMERS I'm the first person in my family to go to college, and I'm an immigrant. My aspirations com... GEISHA WILLIAMS To be honest, I don't listen to much music! I've been so engrossed in it my whole life that ... BUTCH TRUCKS I play trumpet. And I took all the music courses in college, so I can also play the string instrumen... JON TESTER I felt like when I got with Kanye, and we discussed me being on G.O.O.D. Music, he just really took ... PUSHA T I've wanted to do this job for a long time. I've thought about it since I was in college and served ... GEOFF PADDOCK I love everybody in Nashville. I love the music that's coming out of that place, and I really do bel... BIG KENNY I wasn't really into school that much. I was in this building having to cram knowledge I didn... KSI I'm still going to sing these songs because trap is a type of music very popular in the streets,... MALUMA I grew up with singers. My father's mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can't... J. D. SOUTHER I don't listen to music, actually. Obviously I go to clubs; I stand in elevators; a lot of my fr... NATALIA KILLS I've gone through many phases in music in my life. Before I was signed, I was making completely ... CHARLIE PUTH I started classes and it wasn't because I was like, 'I want to be an actor!' - I was rea... CAITY LOTZ The time after college and before music was really rough. I couldn't afford food. I was eating b... BENJAMIN BOOKER Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by th... MIGUEL I'm quite arty. I didn't know whether to become an artist or musician but I realised I could... ED SHEERAN All these interviews I'm doing - this is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about doing when ... SHAMEIK MOORE I've always wanted to be a coach; I never wanted to play basketball professionally. I happened to ge... RICK BRUNSON I went into college undeclared. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew that music was obvious... KINA GRANNIS As an adult (after college) and as an artist I thought about what was real, what sustained me - it w... ALFRE WOODARD It wasn't until I went to college and I got my first motorcycle that I understood the thrill of ... VIN DIESEL Writing songs out of my faith was a real natural progression. I grew up singing in my dad's choi... STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN I wasn't the most confident of cooks, but I just persevered, and I wanted to learn, and I wanted... APRIL BLOOMFIELD I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the N... EVAN HUNTER Poetry itself is music. I'm just lucky that I can convert it into music. William Blake is my fav... BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE A Ritual to Read to Each Other If you don’t know the kind of person I am and... WILLIAM STAFFORD
More Kina Grannis
I get to travel around the world and meet all of these amazing people, and they're singing my so... KINA GRANNIS The first video I ever made, announcing 'Crash the Super Bowl,' I did about fifty takes and ... KINA GRANNIS I'm kind of feeling like I don't mind being open with the random details of my life, like I&... KINA GRANNIS I went into college undeclared. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I knew that music was obvious... KINA GRANNIS I don't have any rock star demeanor to me. I just can't pull that off. KINA GRANNIS My dream artists to collaborate with are probably Cee Lo Green and Imogen Heap. They're complete... KINA GRANNIS I think a lot of singer-songwriters get compared to each other, but I'd like to think that what ... KINA GRANNIS Making a video is one of the most exciting things for artists and fans. It's like a payoff. KINA GRANNIS I started teaching myself guitar because I loved singing so much. Then one day kind of out of the bl... KINA GRANNIS If you're looking to make a basic living selling and playing your music, the Internet is all you... KINA GRANNIS Not only am I putting music out there, I'm giving part of myself away. KINA GRANNIS My two sisters and I sang all the time. Whenever we cleaned the kitchen, we sang in three-part harmo... KINA GRANNIS My first performance was in AP Calculus when they forced me up into the front of the classroom and m... KINA GRANNIS The potential success that could come with signing with a major label didn't quite outweigh how ... KINA GRANNIS Ever since I was really really little, I was just singing all the time. Like one of my favorite game... KINA GRANNIS If I try to write a song, I will completely fail to write a song. But if I'm just holding my gui... KINA GRANNIS I'm really into good nutrition and keeping healthy! That said, I'm also addicted to candy - ... KINA GRANNIS I want to encourage people to make healthy life choices, whether it's training for a half-marath... KINA GRANNIS In finding love, I think it's important to be patient. In being in a relationship, I think it... KINA GRANNIS I've loved singing since forever. Whether it was with my sisters while cleaning the kitchen, put... KINA GRANNIS We don't keep track of final sales, we just anticipate them. KATHY GRANNIS Last year, it definitely helped March sales in general. So maybe this year, we'll see a nice boost i... KATHY GRANNIS It's a niche holiday. It's not the most lucrative holiday, but retailers look at it as a nice bump i... KATHY GRANNIS You got extra time to shop. You have warmer weather, and you can buy what's now in the stores - spri... KATHY GRANNIS