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Keys to our hearts

On this album, you’ve taken a larger share of the control of the direction and also the execution of the project and it’s been your most successful, to date. Um, at this stage in your career how do you fill more entrepreneurial roles and take an even larger stake in your career and your enterprise?
To be honest with you, every album I’ve had the same amount of control. I’ve always produced my own records and I’ve always written my own records and I’ve always executive produced my albums and it’s always been kind of my vision from the beginning to the end. And so I just think that I’ve come into my own and really…with experience comes confidence and I really have more awareness of how I want to do it, having learned from the past and that kind of thing. Funny enough, this album was probably the one that I let go of the most, whereas my other ones I was always very adamant about who I worked with and how I worked it and I would always come in kind of ready with the song that I already had in mind and that kind of thing. But this time I kind of took a different approach and allowed it to be a bit more free and natural and even.

How do you relax?
Well, you know, yesterday was a nice day. I had it off in New Orleans and I actually got inspired and wanted to do some music so that was kind of cool. But before I did that I found like a great spa and went and had a nice hot stone massage and got my nails and my feet done and chilled out like that and then came back and had some delicious food, yum, it was so good. And then I started working on this idea that I had for some music. And that was my problem, because I had so much fun that I stayed up way too late, I didn’t get to bed until six or seven — that was a mistake, I wasn’t supposed to do that. So, you know, it depends, but I definitely get my downtime in, but I try to plan my downtime in before and after tours so that I can have a nice chunk of time and really relax. I’m trying to get more of that in there.

You’re an A-list celebrity, you’re unbelievably successful. Do you feel like with the press coverage and the paparazzi, you have a private life?
A lot of people ask me that and I pray for that [a private life] cause I don’t want this kind of life, ever. That’s not really my style, that’s not my thing. I’ve never been someone that goes to the ‘it’ places and does the ‘it’ things and goes to the ‘it’ restaurant and go to the ‘it’ club. I like more off-the-beaten-path kind of things, but I feel like it’s kind of the way I carry myself and because they don’t really have a lot of information on me — they kind of keep it cool with me. And because I avoid those places where I know they always would be, I don’t really have to run into them too much. And I travel very, very low key. I like it like that. I’m not gonna pull up in a Rolls Royce and have like seventeen people hop out the car with me with necklaces dripping and — I mean, that’s not really my thing so I roll kind of quiet and so it stays quiet and I like it.