Dawn Richard

'Armor On' explains why I needed armor in the first place. Sonically, you'll hear this battle of, 'I love you, no I don't. I love you, I hate you.' That's what you'll feel. You see the story kind of fight against itself.

When I was growing up, there was no one. There were very few black women in tech; there were very few black women in the fashion game. We didn't have our Grace Jones - Grace Jones was before my time. We didn't really have a lot of black women in electronic and punk who were celebrated in the same levels as, say, your big mega-superstars.

My director, Monty Marsh, is really awesome - I've been working with him for years now.

A lot of 'Blackheart' was me, literally in a dark room, confessing my sins; Poe was the influence for that album. But that melancholy has a hopefulness - in every Poe story, there is always a moral at the end.

I really got back to my New Orleans roots - my grandfather played with Fats Domino. We had to leave after Katrina, but I feel like, spiritually, I'm back there.

There's always going to be a fight between mainstream and underground because the mainstream is a very small bubble, and the underground scene is a very small bubble, and they both see themselves as secret societies. But I never saw it that way. I always thought music was open to all things.

I lived in the library with my grandmother as a child. I still love the smell of books; the library card is still my friend.

I'm okay with being the oddball.

'The Red Era' is for everybody. Every gay, every fluid, every black, every white.

I like being in charge. I like being able to control my own destiny and ideas.

I've had two platinum albums. I have worked with thousands of people. But the most rewarding feeling is to see people on Twitter say, 'Do you see what Dawn and them are doing? They are number one.' It's the most rewarding feeling because of all the tears, all the bad stuff, and the people that said I couldn't do it.

It's always interesting when you're doing things yourself - getting the lighting, getting everybody together. It's exciting.

It's a lot of work being an indie artist, but it's worth it.

I don't really feel there's rules in my everyday wear. I kind of do whatever the hell I want to do.

Hair pieces and head dresses have always been something that's been part of my culture.

I wake up every day in a different headspace, so on any given day, my hairstyle will change.

My music speaks of warriors. It speaks of women being kings and this sense of pride of being more, even though you have less.

I love what a women embodies. I love our bodies; I love the way we communicate with our bodies. I love the way dance creates movement. It's art in motion.

I promised myself that I wouldn't be afraid to be who I was when I chose to do this music thing.

I'm not mainstream. You gotta find me.

I always knew who I was, but everyone else wanted to me to be their 'idea' of the 'right' artist. At times, I even believed them.

There is a thing about women that needs to be understood. We don't sit well with being put in a certain place.

I'm big on showing people versatility. I'm constantly trying to push myself to break barriers and the idea that we have to stay in one lane.

How many people can say they had Anna Wintour on a record? Not even an album, just a mixtape? It's audacious, disrespectful, and I feel like it's a little bit raw, and that's what Dirty Money is.

I got in the audition line called 'Making the Band' because I wanted to be in a band. If I didn't, I would have done 'American Idol.'

Everyone who knows Puff knows Puff rolls with himself. His hustle is money. That's what he does.

The problem with Danity Kane is everybody wanted to play everybody's role, and when you're in a group like that, that can't survive.

R&B needs to see a new light. It doesn't have to be pigeonholed.

When you see what you really are, good or bad, there is a fearlessness to understanding your purpose.

My uncle is in the hall of fame for creating by hand some of the most intricate Indian Mardi Gras garb.

There's a fine line between artist and product. I don't think the industry purposely does it, but I think that's just the way they maneuver. You have to be careful that doesn't become your story, where you become a product, and your art is tarnished because you're just seen as a tool to make money.

I connect so much with Peter Gabriel's sound because, to me, he always had that South African vibe. His drums were always something to move to: it was almost like Calypso. I'm a big fan.

I come from an era where lyrics were full of imagery and metaphor, and that's all I know. I think people miss that.

I did write more mainstream stuff with DK. But you could always tell the records that I wrote in contrast with everybody else's because the format was a bit different. The harmonies were used in a different type of way. Way more metaphors in the mix.

There's definitely that tribal Africana thing going on in my sound. It's that marching band, second-line music, that Creole-influence in the kick, and the snare that drives everything for me. I think it's really what's separated my sound from a lot of the R&B and pop music out there.

'Blackheart' was the moment for me to really open up and let people into the world that is me.

I want to show that you can be just as amazing as labels and compete as a business and work as a business even though you're an artist.

It doesn't bother me when I'm labeled, but it's so... limiting. It's so boxy.

I'm not a very open person.

I had no idea that what I thought was my low wasn't really my low. That's what a lot of people think - then life reminds them, 'No, there's lower.'

I watched my parents lose everything, from a house to birth certificates. We were homeless for about six months, then we stayed in Baltimore, and my parents got jobs.

When I was 4, I had a schedule. I was playing softball. My brother was playing football. My parents were teachers, and they'd owned businesses. We like to work hard. Work and then books. Books and then work. We just knew that we had to excel. It sounds militant, but trust me, it was fun.

I don't wish homelessness on anyone, especially when you come from where your parents work hard.

Dreams rise like the sun and set like the sun: One minute, it is high and bright; the next minute, you might lose it.

I write for myself. It's therapy.

Music and dance is part of everything in New Orleans. So I grew up appreciating it all.

Originally, I was set on going to Hawaii Pacific University. We visited the campus in Hawaii. I was gonna be a Rainbow Warrior. I was gonna play softball. I was gonna major in marine biology. Everything was set. Then my dad was like, 'So you're not gonna do music? If you do go to Hawaii, there's no studios there, baby girl.'

Besides music, I was all school, school, school. And softball. I played the game since I was four, and I wanted to go to the Olympics for softball. I got a full scholarship through softball.

When my dad went to college to get his master's from Loyola, he was playing Debussy and Chopin and Beethoven. But he played all that New Orleans stuff, too. I would go with my dad to gigs, pick up the piano and the speakers, and I would be like his roadie.

I think, my entire life, I was a bit different. And I didn't think I was different; I just kinda always stuck out.