If I’ve grown as an artist, it will be represented in the art. There’s no need to explain it.

Some artists are bound to an image: Bob Marley has dreadlocks, Matisyahu has a beard. But that’s a reminder that the whole thing is not about style. It’s about music.

I was into acting as a kid. There was a time when I was 18 that I played the boy in a production of ‘Equus’ in Oregon, and I thought that was going to be my life.

My music is not really about one ideology. It’s not about one truth.

The religious lifestyle keeps you focused. It’s helpful when trying to manoeuvre through the music scene.

We’re so quick to go to make things black and white, and to put things in their box. But everything is this mixture – and that’s what this world is – is this blend of different things.

Is it possible Hanukkah doesn’t inspire folksy songs? Plot lines may be a part. The Christmas story has a lot of material to work with. There’s Jesus and his birth, the wise men, their gifts and tons of frankincense.

Reggae music isn’t Jewish, but a lot of the ideas are.

When there’s light shining on a tree, that tree takes on different meaning. If there’s no light at all it just looks dead. If you look at light as godly meaning, the world comes alive in a certain way.

Everyone’s right or wrong, Everyone’s got an opinion, put them in a song and let me keep on living.