“I was in bands all through my youth. Things started out more acoustic and then p…” — Lights

What puts me in the perspective of the power of a song is listening to it at full volume.

When I was younger it was a lot of quantity over quality. Just writing, writing, writing. Hundreds of songs. Now it's fewer songs. If I write 10 songs I believe 80 percent of them are good and gonna be used.

I got signed to a development deal when I was 15. That fell through after about a year when the company merged with another label. Then I got picked up by Sony publishing. So I was writing professionally from 16 to 18. Then I started making my own records.

It is really hard to write something high-energy and upbeat on acoustic guitar.