Poo Bear

Being genuinely humble and being myself has helped me succeed in my career.

Just because I make something doesn't mean that it's going to be amazing, and most creative people don't like to admit when their music is just okay.

I learned years ago that the more honest you are about anything you're doing in life, you can grow and learn from your mistakes.

People love music, but they also love the lifestyle and glam that comes along with it.

I've never stopped writing, I've never slowed down just because I don't have something on the radio or a No. 1 or No. 2 record. That doesn't mean that I'm not in the studio planting seeds.

I'm trying to stay a song ahead, two songs ahead of everybody else.

My first significant break was when I was 15, going on 16, and my cousin Courtney 'Bear' Sills told me you can make a career out of writing songs. He was the one who put me in with 112. The first song I did with 112 was 'We Can Do It Anywhere.'

I think the biggest sacrifice I had to make was giving up time and missing out on things. Not going to college and getting the college experience. Or missing important holidays. All my time was spent in the studio.

I find inspiration by feeling like I haven't done or achieved anything. I push all songs I've written to the furthest part of my mind so I am not thinking of what I've done. I continue to think on what I need to do.

I had people telling me how much I sucked and how bad my music was, but I didn't allow that to discourage me to the point where I didn't want to do music anymore.

Often by the time writers and producers try to get a new hit song, the industry has already moved on. Whatever you're creating might not be as hot as it would have been during the time of your first hit. It definitely compromises the creative process when the music is changing and evolving so fast. If you're not on top of it, you will be forgotten.

Toronto is my favourite city in the world.

Ideally, it would be cool to actually get to know artists enough to know what their feelings are, what they believe in, what they want people to get from them, what they represent.

Pop music - deriving from the word 'popular' - for me, it's just great to be a part of music that reaches a large amount of people and not just a small amount of people.

For me, what makes a dope concept is it's a fresh idea, something that I've never heard before.

People say to me, 'You're a genius; you're great.' I don't know if I'll ever feel that way about myself. Some things, I feel like, are better left for other people to say, and I'm just not into, like, tooting my own horn or bragging or anything.

As a songwriter, I got used to being in the background.

People didn't know that I existed before 'Purpose.'

Finally, I've reached a place where if I'm working with an artist, they allow me to just do whatever I feel. Growing up, it was like, 'We want another 'Peaches and Cream.' Then you realise... why would you want a 2001 Mercedes Benz when I'm making 2018 Benzes?

It's cool to be recognized, but it's not something that I was seeking or sought after. I never wanted to be famous.

I don't want to be an artist; I don't really want to sing - though I do sing on a few songs. But I want to be the guy that presents new music from both new artists and established artists at the same time.

Being a songwriter, my job is just to write songs for people. I'm not attached to them.

Back in the Nineties, I was in an R&B group. I signed my first record deal when I was 12.

I had to go through so much trial and error to get all the whack-ness out of my system as a kid. I think everybody has to do that. You have to go through a period of failing in order to get better at it - whatever you're doing.

I've watched songwriters, writers, producers, even artists that I've written hits for come and go. But to the world, it looked like Justin Bieber was my first success.