I wanted to bring the R&B flavor and other Westernized sounds to my music, because that's the type of music I grew up listening to.

I grew up listening to - it's kind of embarrassing - all classical music.

I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, and a lot of folk music.

I was bred and raised in a multi-cultural music background.

I'm proud of my roots. There are not many Asians in the music industry so it's important for me to tell people where I'm from.

I wanted to bring back that big, ballad type of music that we used to love so much. Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, when they first came out, that's what I grew up singing.