You’re stuck in my head and I can’t get you out of it. It’s a trap from my own creativity.’ And I think that is a good lesson for all the writers out there: beware of your own imagination.” She gave me an example. “I wrote a song for a children’s show, and it went to Disney, and the Disney people put a new melody to it and it was a huge hit. So I was really happy because it wasn’t mine anymore. “I can’t remember the title of the song, but I remember the melody they put on it. When I get the song back in my head, I cannot sing it the way it was originally. Every time I hear this melody, it sounds so weird, so sad. I can’t do it anymore because it’s been touched by them, and they’re not even happy about it.” When it comes to writing original music, who or what is the subject of your song? In other words, is it a love song or a sad song? Is it a song about yourself or about someone else? What is the emotional center of your music? “Usually I write when something really hits me, but it’s either so painful or too joyful that I can’t just sit around and think about it, but I have to share it somehow, and so I start writing.” When you do write, do you like to write lyrics, music, or both? “I start with a melody, usually one that really hits me. Then I try to build a storyline. Sometimes I’ll put a title to it and write lyrics around it. And sometimes I just let the title carry it, I don’t really write lyrics. “I find that sometimes it’s not in a language that I understand so much and I don’t really understand what it means. I can’t analyze or judge, it’s too complicated for me. It’s just something that comes to my head and I write it down. “Sometimes I write in other languages, and they’re all just phrases and nonsense because I don’t know the meaning of them, but it makes me so excited because they’re a part of my history, and I’m not really sure what they mean but they’re so old and they’re so special to me that it makes me really happy.” “I’m so proud of you, really.” (photo: A.J. Castro) Can you give us an example of a song that you wrote in another language? “If I remember right, the first one I ever wrote was in Japanese, and it was one I didn’t even like when I wrote it. I was 16 or 17 years old, and I thought it was a lot like the songs that all the rock bands were doing then in Japan. And I thought to myself, ‘Who am I trying to impress? Is this for real?’ “I started writing that song and recording it on my tape recorder, and my father said to me, ‘So when’s this record coming out?’ And I said, ‘I don’t really know. I just wrote it. I’m not releasing it. I’m not doing anything with it.’ I gave him the tape recorder and I wrote that song all night and then it was daybreak and I realized I had written the entire album. It was so powerful. It was called ‘Kon’an wa nani (What’s Next)’. It was kind of a punk rock thing.” “When I wrote the lyrics I didn’t know what it meant, but now I know that they’re supposed to mean ‘nothing.’ It’s the end of the world. I realized that song was powerful and when I told my father about it, he told me that was the first time he had ever understood it. The reason I had written it was that I had something to tell and there was no way I was going to tell that story in my head. “I had to make it part of someone else’s story and so I turned it into a story that had no meaning. I was 16 years old, and it was like a huge secret. I didn’t want people to know that my dad would say to me, ‘It’s okay. There’s nothing in there. Just leave it in there because we don’t need it.’ That was what he said when my dad came home. ‘It’s nothing, it’s just a song that you wrote.’ “I guess I was just afraid that people were going to tell me, ‘Okay, now you have to record this.’ I had such a hard time with that song because I had my whole family standing there and the neighbors downstairs and they were really mad at me because I played them a song that was in Japanese, and they were just waiting for me to say something. They were saying, ‘Play me that song again. We need to hear that song again.’ “I’m just telling you about this because it shows that I had a very strong imagination and I was very brave when I wrote it and I wasn’t afraid of anyone. And when I listen to the song now, it sounds very powerful to me.” Do you still write in Japanese or Spanish? Do you do that? “I’ve written songs in many languages but most of the time now I write them in English. It’s hard to change your whole language and culture, and it’s actually pretty cool that I’m part of this culture and part of this history, even though I don’t speak the language. “I used to be able to write in Spanish, but for some reason I couldn’t write songs anymore in any language except English. If I write a song in Spanish I just want to do it in English, but I don’t have any reasons why. I just do it for fun.” Do you write in English or in Spanish? “I don’t write in Spanish. I used to be able to, but I’m not very good in Spanish anymore.” Do you also write songs in English when you have been working on the Japanese translation for the lyrics? “No, I don’t. It’s always better to keep it in the language that you first started with. “When I first started writing music I only did it because I thought it was cool. Now I think that if you’re in my world, you should know that it’s not that important. I think it’s very important to be able to communicate through words. And maybe some people will listen to it and feel like you’re just telling them stories, and that’s okay. But that’s not what I’m doing. I’m trying to be a part of music that touches people’s lives.” Is that why you write in different languages? Do you do that just for fun? “Sometimes I think, ‘Who am I?’ but I really just do it because I like it. “The lyrics are something I want to express, and sometimes the stories are so old that I just can’t change them. The words come first and the rest of the meaning comes after it. It’s not about me anymore. It’s just about someone else who says, ‘I want you to sing this and make my life easier.’ I give you something that you can hold, and it’s always in the same place.” When did you begin writing? When you were five years old, you learned to read and write music and write lyrics, right? “Yes, I did. I was five when I started. My parents would put on their show every morning. It was in front of the church and we lived in Manhattan. I would dance with my mom to the songs that she was playing. My mom would come home, get me to change my clothes, and I’d change into one of the costumes. I would change and I would be in the show. “My mom taught me how to sing and how to dance. She taught me how to sing ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ When I was eight she taught me how to play and she made me practice. She said, ‘If you want to be a real musician, if you want to really be in it, then you have to practice and study. You can’t do it just because you feel like it.’ And I thought that was so cool. “I really wanted to study so I could be in that world. I’m working in something that is mine and I’m the person who’s paying the rent, so I want to make it as good as possible.” Why is that? Is it because you’re really interested in that kind of music? Do you listen to the radio or do you go to rock concerts? “I still go to rock concerts, but I’m not interested in trying to copy the shows that I used to see. Now I go to more intimate shows. I’ll go to someone’s house and see them live, or if I’m in New York I’ll just go to some of my favorite musicians’ shows. “As a child I liked going to the concert because that was the only time I could go to see a concert. It was very interesting to see what other people did. Sometimes the sound was bad and I was always wondering how they were making that sound, and it