Now I am at the point people are believing in my music, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't talk about what I believe in.
— Tones and I
People like me for who I am, I don't wanna change that, if anything I just wanna hone my craft and get better at it.
I'm just going to do what I do and be who I am.
I want to play the Super Bowl halftime show in America.
I'm not into makeup or dresses or typically girly things. But to me, those things don't really define what it is to be a female artist in this industry any more. It's being brave and courageous and true to yourself.
No one could have ever prepared me for the whole world judging me and comparing me to other artists.
I'm just going to keep trying to write music for me because that's what got me here.
People think you should be happy all the time but you can't.
I have confidence in the songs that I've written and I'm not going to change anything.
I'm scared of being a one-hit wonder because my second single has set the bar too high.
I worked in retail for a bit and then I busked for two years. As soon as I started, I thought, 'I'll do busking until I'm 50 because this is the best job in the world.'
No one could have ever prepared me for the whole world judging me and comparing to other artists. But what's most important is that you have to be a good person and care about others and carry yourself well.
There is no necessity in this world that requires you to have an absurd amount of money.
One day I was at the park with my family, all my cousins and stuff, in Frankston... We were all just singing a song and my aunty was like 'oh guys, she can actually hold a note.' I think that's the earliest memory of someone actually pointing me out as someone that has an ability to sing. I was probably like 7 years old.
Usually I get inspired by singles and not artists, but I love Macklemore.
I didn't even think my music was good enough to get on the radio in Australia.
Sometimes I don't think that I'm the most relatable female artist.
Well, the first Australian tour I literally just took busking to the stage.
I thought the world of live performance and busking was where I was going to thrive. I had no idea that digital streaming platforms and radio and that world would be for me, you know?
I didn't think I had a weird voice until everyone started saying I did.
Dance Monkey' showed me that I'm good enough.
Just because my song was being played on the radio didn't mean I had a load of money. You don't get royalties overnight.
When I was busking, when I was paying for petrol with silver coins or when I was sneaking into hostels so I could park my van up and sleep in it, I had the best time of my life.
Streaming services are very important.
There was a lot of times when I was busking there were a lot of people in your face, like 'More, more! Go again, again, again!'... People were so used to be able to swipe to see something different to entertain themselves that the patience had diminished.
I've always sung in the shower and I watched a lot of 'Rage' when I was young.
The pre-chorus always flows and the chorus is always a little bit harder for me because I put pressure on myself. I didn't know that there was a proper way to do these things, so I just write what sounds good to me in my ears and then I hope to God that someone else likes it too.
I was getting a little bit bullied by guys who thought I was taking their customers, and it got to the point where I was anxious every time I set up my keyboard.
I never thought that I would have the No 1 song in the world.
I don't want to focus too much on trying to write a song for radio.
I was living in my van, playing on the street for almost two years.
I am being savagely bullied online.
People were trying to write songs to knock Lil Nas X off his perch; I didn't try to do that.
Dance Monkey' is about the bad side of busking.
Thank you to Australia for letting me know that I'm OK just the way that I am.
The radio doesn't want to play you until you're No.1 on Shazam, and you can't get No.1 on Shazam without getting played.
