Ariel Rechtshaid

I realized I liked being in the studio and working on translating the ideas into recordings.

I try not to become friends with musicians, but life happens and dinner happens and going out happens - it becomes interwoven in L.A.

I was a snot-nosed teenage skater at one point, who listened to only punk records and hung around people that had that idea of what is okay to do and what isn't okay to do.

Kids from financially distressed households are twice as likely to have to repeat a grade and more than two-and-a-half more times to struggle with poor health later in life.

It's good to like yourself, and that only comes from hard work, from doing. But vanity is dangerous; it can trip you badly.

I studied international relations and economics at the University of Virginia. I paid my way by working as a bartender in the summer and at three part-time jobs during the year.