avoid each other in the grocery store...making you Strangers again. And those complications
sum up the whole album for me.
Since your family travels a lot, I bet you have tons of stories to share. What is your favorite
memory from those road trips and did it ever inspire a song?
I have been so blessed in the way I live. While all my friends were in school, I grew up getting to
watch mountains turn into oceans from the back seat of my parent’s car. I absolutely loved it. I
always write more when I'm traveling so I have a lot of I was fifteen the first time I went to
California. We drove all the way from Houston to San Diego and then to Los Angeles and to San
Francisco. We stayed at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles where tons of celebrities had
stayed before, so as a fifteen year old I was starstruck. I remember seeing a magazine
with Marilyn Monroe on the cover on the table in the hotel room and it sent a wave of
inspiration through me. Being a Marilyn Monroe fan, I started researching everything about her
and anything I could find about old Hollywood. I wrote a song called City of Ghosts that was
inspired by old mysteries and stories of Los Angeles. Best part: I wrote it in the bathtub at the
Beverly Hilton.
What event inspired “Paper Planes”?
When I was sixteen, I met an older boy (that happened to also be a songwriter) and he was kind
of a loose cannon. I knew there was no way it would end well and that I would probably end up
hurt but the curious part of me knew I had to see it through. (And the songwriter part of me
knew bad relationships always lead up to great song material.) I wrote Paper Planes the week I
met him, before our four month relationship even started. I wrote the song in past tense almost
like I was looking back on a situation that hadn't even happened yet.
How did you handle that situation at such a young age?
I handled that situation the way I handle every situation, the only way I know how to...by
writing. The song just poured out of me like it was a story I'd told a hundred times before.
Funny enough, the relationship that inspired the song actually ended on great terms and we're
still friends to this day. Even if my predictions were wrong, I'm glad I got the song out of it.
What would you tell other young girls your age who have so much emotion built up?
Find your outlet. Even if it isn't writi ng or music...find something you're truly passionate about
and use it to get your emotion out. Life is not easy. It is full of heartbreak and pain and loss and