Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think I was always an old soul, even as a teenager.
Now that I have seen I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead.
You don't normally think of Los Angeles as a place to go to get away.
I'm a bit of a book worm, so a lot of the songs I write are inspired by books.
I feel like I always have to have a song on my album that people can use in their weddings.
I have a particular style of writing and my voice sounds a particular way, which lends itself to a certain style.
I've always recognised that I have influence, whether I like it or not, and that I can use it to do something good.
I know my sound, and I have to be true to who I am as an artist, even though I want be real cool, and make really cool music.
I learnt that music cost something, and that's a good thing. Also, that I should exercise, because I didn't and I got very sick.
Singing was always quite a private thing... I don't think my own mum even heard me sing until after I signed with Sony just out of high school!
At sixteen I was like: "I need to get an album out now!" - even though I was only sixteen. I was always in a little bit of a rush to be an adult.
Lead me to the cross Where Your love poured out Bring me to my knees Lord I lay me down Rid me of myself I belong to You Lead me, lead me to the cross.
You can analyze all you want but you can never explain away the God factor. Sometimes God just decides to breathe on something and it's completely His prerogative.
The writing and making of each of my albums has been such a different beast each time, so I'm interested in seeing what kind of animal the fourth one turns out to be!
The music that I make isn't really like any of the music that I listen to. I think I listen to cool music, but I know that I don't make cool music - so it's kind of funny!
I'm not quite sure where the sponsorship rumour came from... probably because I have been a spokesperson for child sponsorship so people just assumed that was the connection.
I often think that eventually I'd love to do some papers... my correspondence if life calms down a bit, but I think I'd do history or English literature... I've had enough of journos.
I began dabbling in writing when I was 12, and there was never an official start to singing... I just sang my songs because there was no one else to sing them and no one told me to shut up!
The God we worship is Jesus - He is the image of the invisible God - and if we dare seek Him for who He really is rather than pursue an idea of Him that fits into our tidy boxes, He will blow our minds.
Now that I am an adult, I'm very comfortable in my own skin. I'm a lot more settled down and I learnt to just be comfortable with where I'm at, rather than always wanting to be somewhere ahead of where I am.
I had received some minor indie label interest when I was 14 after I was in a schools music competition thing in NZ called 'Rockquest', but I knew it wasn't the right time and that I wasn't good enough and needed to concentrate on school.
I recognise my responsibility, and it's funny when I read people who say they never asked to be a role model, and I understand that, but as soon as you have influence over people, you have a responsibility with what you do with that influence.
I only say this because a lot of people seem to think that if you're a musician you want to be a celebrity. But most musicians in the world aren't celebrities, and pretty much everything about the concept of 'celebrity' is a complete load of bollocks anyhow.
David Bowie is the quintessential English gentleman and, of course, a musical and generational institution. I only played support for him for one night (not a whole tour) but he was incredibly gracious and generous toward me and I've certainly never forgotten it.
I had a pretty regular childhood, with a rad mum who taught me to love reading and thinking and laughing, and (as far as I was concerned) a regular dad who drove trucks for a living and did radio interviews on weekends and got stopped in the street a lot when we went out.
People aren't problems to be fixed. People are people, for us to walk alongside and journey with and help pick up the pieces with and, when they drop them again, to get back down and help them pick them up again. And that's real love - without condition and without expectation.
Those who have had the most impact and influence throughout history and certainly the people who've had the most impact and influence on me personally have been basically entirely unaware of any such influence and made their chief concern their personal devotion and obedience, and the pleasure of God in the hidden things of their lives.
Obviously, it was a big life change for me and quite a shock to suddenly have these songs I'd written in my bedroom as a far-too-intense teenager all over the airwaves and see my face on buses, especially in a small country like New Zealand, but at the same time it was such a thrill and an honour knowing that my music was reaching people.
Then Jesus introduced Himself to me. Though my birth certificate reads 1983, I reckon I was born in 1999, when I met Jesus - not in a church or on a camp or through people, but alone in my bedroom with an open Bible and a tangible revelation that the Son of God was not only real, but alive and awesome and stronger than the chains that bound me.
There is truth in little corners of our lives. There are hints of it in songs and children's eyes. It's familiar, like an ancient lullaby; What do I live for? If we've eyes to see... If we've ears to hear... To find it in our hearts and mouths the word that saves is near. Shed that shallow skin... Come and live again... Leave all you were before... To believe is to begin.
In the end, no matter how my records are panned or praised, if there are kids and communities in developing nations that have improved living conditions and are finally getting access to things we all have a basic right to (clean water, education, healthcare) because I am able to advocate, raise awareness or funds in some small way, then my life has achieved something that in the end means far more than having the track or album of the moment.