Even if the songs are at times painful - 'cause some of the songs are not all roses and balloons; some of them dig into deep things that I've been going through - there's a joy that I think people feel from my music and, hopefully, from my performance because I am so in love with doing what I do.
— Rachel Platten
Music truly heals, and I am so grateful to have learned that through Musicians on Call.
I get really excited about other female acts. I feel inspired when I see another women succeeding in music because it makes me realize that if they can do it, I can do it.
Lyrics are very important to me. I like speaking to women and saying what I mean.
I wish I'd gone to music school or just started playing in bands sooner.
I'm a closet outdoorsy athletic enthusiast, and I would love to do a rafting and hiking trip someday and maybe sleep in a treehouse and bathe in a chilly winding river.
I work extremely hard to stay positive and happy. But I get sad and anxious, too, just like everyone.
I can beatbox. Well, sort of. I have one beat that I can do, but people get fooled.
Though I played classical piano since age 5 and sang in a cappella groups, being an artist didn't seem like something I was talented enough to do full time. So I kind of buried that dream.
I was a political science major in college and dreamed of being a diplomat.
There are a lot of people who give you the message that maybe you are not good enough, and the best thing you can do for yourself is to block out all of that noise.
My biggest fear is that I'm not good enough. I have this voice in my head that I've been battling for years that says, 'You're not really talented enough. You don't really deserve this.'
I've always sung in choirs and acapella groups, but when I was in college, I finally started writing songs and playing with a band, and that ignited a desire to do it full time and pour everything I had into it.
'Stand By You' is about sticking by the person you love not only when things are easy, but being there for them during trials and letting them know they aren't alone.
Even if I'm making music for people for $20 a night, at least I'm making music.
I wrote my first song when I was six or seven, a silly little song. But I used to write poems in high school - not songs.
I got a little bit lost in the writing process: like, that moment in the 'Fight Song' music video where I'm throwing the crumpled paper on the bed, that was really true life. I was filling journals with different possibilities of lyrics for the first verse. And none of them felt right.
I think what people respond to, and what they're responding to so strongly, is I'm very myself on stage. What you see in person is very much who I am on stage.
I have volunteered for Musicians on Call for the past 12 years because of the incredible one-on-one experiences in hospital rooms when no one other than the patient and I would remember the love that was exchanged.
I like structure, cool, hip songs, and fun, hooky music.
I'm a fighter, and I don't take no for an answer.
It used to break my heart that I didn't get to start in varsity soccer!
The adventurer in me would love to visit Patagonia, Chile.
My mom is a therapist, and my dad has a doctorate in psychology, and growing up, I felt 'very understood.'
I'm so grateful that anyone has connected with my songs, let alone millions of people.
I think I made this decision that I just loved making music, and it didn't matter what level I got to do it on, and 'Fight Song' was this declaration that I'm going to keep going, and I'm going to keep believing in myself, even if it seems like it's impossible.
I love helping friends, and I like to think I am a good listener and supportive. I'm also just kind of nosy, so it would satisfy my need to know other people's stories.
I love... different kinds of music. I like classical music and pop music. I like alternative, and I like rap, hip-hop, and I kind of collected all these things that I love, and they infused my sensibilities, and I just wanted to sing because it felt like it needed to come out of me.
I played piano growing up. I played classical piano since I was 5, and I sang in choirs, and I sang in plays and musicals.
I want to continue to remain present and grateful each day that I get to be doing what I love. Making and performing music I believe in.
My friends and family have always been extremely supportive, but the support I've received from fans has been so overwhelming. I love hearing all of their 'Fight Song' stories; I have been so inspired by so many of them.
I feel crazy that me sticking with my dreams actually worked. It's wild and incredible.
I cannot believe that I get a tour bus. I've been traveling in a van for 15 years. I used to look at people who were on buses and be like, 'Whoa, man, some day.'
I think, like any artist, those baby songs are not the best things you've ever written, but they count because they're you're first attempts at creating art and expressing yourself.
There's a joy I think people feel from... my performance.
I refuse to dress 'hot' for Halloween, 'cause I always have to have makeup and hair and look cute for my job. So on Halloween, I either go gory or weird or funny.
I like to be supportive and a role model.
I didn't grow up with musical influences in my family.
I'm one of those people at the airport holding a pillow like a little kid.
Food-wise, oh man, I tend to really indulge on vacation because a lot of my friends are incredible chefs. One friend makes an eggplant parmesan that is heavenly and melts in your mouth, and another makes a chocolate pudding that I can't resist.
I love playing sports. I'm overly eager and aggressive and not very skilled, so it leads to many small injuries.
I'd faced a lot of rejection from labels and the industry, and it was getting hard to keep believing in myself. But something wouldn't let me - inside - I had this voice that was relentlessly hopeful, and honestly, I just loved performing and writing too much to ever really quit.
I used to imagine working as a White House staffer some day, so it was pretty amazing to be there... realizing another dream.
I wrote 'Fight Song' as this declaration to believe in myself, and that is similar to what you are taught to believe in Girl Scouts. Building confidence. Building character. And above all else, being there for each other as a community.
Wherever I go, people are so kind and so lovely and so warm and show their best self. So I feel very lucky.
I think my best friend is dry shampoo and dry texturizer spray.
I have always loved music. My mom used to sing with my sister and I when I was younger, and I was in choirs and loved to perform, but when I was in college, I went on a study abroad to Trinidad, and while I was there, I sang backup at my first concert.
I do a lot of visualisations and meditation and a lot of hippie stuff.
I'm a big yogi.
If I wake up in the middle of the night and have an idea, I want to go to my computer and be able to do it. So I hired someone at Guitar Center to come over to my house and teach me Logic music program, and I learned it over a couple months.
