I Want to Make People Happy - Live at ITunes Originals

[Speaking]

I can remember when I first started playing the piano and writing things

When I wasn't writing actual songs yet where there were words to it

And I used to write these kind of classical pieces that, in my head, would go along with like

Scenes from National Geographic programs with like a lion chasing a goat or something, you know...

And I would imagine that in my head and write a tune against that imaginary scene

And then I started putting words to songs when I started writing songs for my friends

'cause I remember my friend, my best friend, I think my first my first song with words

I think, was for my best friend in, like, second grade, and her name was Manuela

And so the first song was called Manuela 'cause she had a fight with her parents

And she was feeling really bad, and for some reason it was like... I want to give her something to make her feel better

And I just thought I'd write her a song

I was talking to my friend a couple of days ago and I admitted something to him that I don't ever say out loud

Because it just sounds so kind of, you know, gooey and embarrassing

But I do remember when I asked my mother for piano lessons

And we were living on 162nd Street, in New York, and we just moved there

And I was in this new bedroom and I couldn't sleep and I went into my mom's room

And she was up in her loft bed and the light was on and she was reading and I cried out, and I said "Mom...."

Because I remember sitting in the room, and all of a sudden, just having this bang!... "I want to take piano lessons."

And I remember saying to her, "Uhh, momma, can I take piano lessons?"

And she said, "Yeah, sure."

And I was like, "Can we start looking tomorrow?"

And she was like, "Yeah, sure, why?"

And heres the... ah... and I said, "'Cause I wanna make people happy!" ...

Which I have not said that out loud to anyone except for my friend the other day, and it just...

Because it makes me so embarrassed that I said that, but...

I don't know why, but yeah

I guess it was to help other people, too

You know, when I first decided to try to take the songs public

My friend Sue, Sue Chang, who's one of my best friends still

We were going to night school together in eleventh grade in New York

And she really, really, really was... important in my decision to even make a demo tape because she was saying to me

"There's no way that you could go in there with these songs and that they're not gonna sign you."

And I was like, you know, she's so optimistic about everything that I was like

"You know, everybody says that, they're like, I'm the greatest,"

And she's like, "No, I'm telling you, there's no way! You can't fail! You're so good!"

And she was so sure of me that it was like, she really made me go, "Okay, well, I'll make a tape of three songs,"

And, when our night school closed down, before we could go back to senior year I ended up moving out

I thought that was like, every door was closing for me

So I took that as a sign to, like, come out to California where, my dad lives here

And I went to homeschool, and I made a demo tape, and then...

My father and I made up... seventy... seven, I think? Seventy seven demo tapes

Theres... Never is a Promise, then there was, I believe, a song called... He Takes a Taxi? I think that was what was on it?

And then there was another song called Not One Of Those Times

And the first one I handed out, I got signed

I gave it to a friend of mine, Anna Shemitov, who was babysitting for Cathy Shanker, the Publicist

And Cathy had a Christmas party to which Andy Slater went and... I got signed