One time, when I was about eight, these guys started throwing water balloons at me. That really did ruin my summer.
I've always had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do.
The first time I heard Sam Cooke was in the 'Malcom X' film. I was with my father, and that's the first time I heard his song. I remember my father telling me the story of Sam Cooke.
I love the pioneers like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but when I write music, it comes out in my own way.
I'm coming from a Ginuwine and Usher background: slow and smooth songs. And that's why I really connected to Sam Cooke, because he was just very smooth. It's not like the James Brown types, which is all great stuff, but he was totally set apart from those guys.
I want people to see an honesty within me. I'm not trying to be the next Sam Cooke or Otis Redding.
I remember hanging out at Starbucks. There were these older guys who would sit around and play Crosby, Stills & Nash songs. I was just so in love with music. I would just go hang out with them, and I would try to sing and harmonize with them. I didn't even know the songs.
There are a lot of bands who would get really big in Fort Worth and play shows on a Friday night that everybody would come out to. But I've never been really big in my hometown. My shows would have 10 or 15 people at them.
Fame and all that type of stuff is inevitable, but I'm very content having a good band with no negativity, and everyone is on the same page.
Gospel music played a huge part of my life. I was too scared to audition for the choir, but through my own music, I was also able to find spirituality for myself.
I don't like a lot of attention. That's kind of who I am at heart. So I see everything, the people circulating around me and a lot of people know me - it kind of feels like a heavy weight sometimes.
I was 10 years old when I first heard Ginuwine. I remember being at a friend's house, and the music video came on. I was just like, 'What is that?' I was just kind of drawn from there.
I think I'll always live in Fort Worth. It's great that I can now go anywhere I want to play music, but I love coming back here. I can roll down the streets and just reminisce.
From the core, I'm a shy person, but when I'm on stage, I know how to put it aside. Of course, I'm not perfect, but I've definitely grown as far as being comfortable on stage.
Dance really built my confidence on stage. I'm still a shy person. But I have a lot more confidence than I did when I started.
People have this perception of soul music of somebody shouting.
I don't live in this soul music bubble. I love Young Thug, Drake, Kendrick Lamar. I even heard that Kendrick was a fan of my music. Hopefully there's a door open for us to do music together. He's one of my favorite artists. I love Jazmine Sullivan, Lianne la Havas, Usher, Ginuwine. It goes further than classic soul.
A lot of R&B cats are doing a lot of auto-tune. Tyrese went back to the basics. I love classic soul music and Ginuwine. Ginuwine and Usher laid the foundation back in the '90s. There's no one doing that anymore.
When I first got into the music scene, I was inspired by different songwriters. I like to dress from the '50s and '60s. I like to paint a picture of that era through my music and clothes. I am inspired by a whole a lot of things, from doo-wop to gospel and soul music.
I got tired of depending on other people, and I had this strong desire to make music of my own. I decided to start writing my own tunes and just see what could happen.
