Julia Michaels

I grew up in Davenport, Iowa, but I moved to Santa Clarita, California, when I was 6.

An artist could have a really big relationship, and then they break up, and any song after that, people are automatically going to assume that that song is about that person.

People are going to assume whatever they want to assume.

It's 2016. Men are more vulnerable than ever.

I definitely always thought of myself as a songwriter before a singer.

My boyfriend and I like to fight a lot. I have a lot of problems. He has a lot of problems. Somehow, we always work them out and find a way back to each other.

I'm a very stimulated person.

I have, like, sensory overload problems.

I just remember really loving words and writing about anything I could, and the way I'd remember things, like my library card number, was to make a melody.

My sister was the singer, and I always had the mentality there could only be one in the family.

I think artists are aware that talking gives a songwriter so much material. If they just tell us what's happening, it's so much easier for us to write a song that's specific to them.

Once I heard how deep music could touch people and what it can make you feel and all of these emotions it could bring out, I was really fascinated with it all.

I had all these singles come out within a two-month period, and then nothing for almost two years. You start to feel a little irrelevant. You realize how many people there are trying to be songwriters and how competitive it is and how political things can be.

Working with new people can be really hard and nerve-wracking. When you don't know the person, it's like being on a blind date.

The Weeknd's 'Can't Feel My Face' is very experimental. It's pop meets urban meets indie meets alternative.

Stylistically, things are becoming cooler. People are trying different things and combining genres.

I'm very emotional and vulnerable.

I just wanted to write the songs. I never wanted to sing them.

I write songs for myself, but I never keep them. I'm like, 'O.K., that was my therapy - it's out of my body now. I'm going to give it to somebody else so it can be their therapy, too.'

I've written poetry most of my life.

Women often don't want to be typecast as the girl that's sad.

I just want to write fun, interesting music that pushes boundaries and is still true to myself. I want people to feel something.

I've been the person who hides behind people and lets everyone else do their thing, and I've been content there.

I think that women are afraid to be vulnerable because they think it makes them look weak.

It's ingrained in people's minds that it's a typecast and a stereotype that women are just emotional and crazy.