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BiTS: And this would be in New York, in Queens, I believe, is where you were brought

up. Is that right?

SS: That's right, yeah. My earliest memories are of the small apartment that we had
in Queens, and my sister and I used to take turns sharing the top bunk. We had bunk

beds and a big golden retriever. I don't know how the dog managed to fit in the
apartment, but my brother had his own room. We had this little backyard that, you
know, when you're a child, you perceive everything as much bigger. I went back

recently. I went on a long bike ride from Brooklyn, where I live
now, to visit my old apartment where I grew up and

everything was so small. It was amazing, and the school
that seemed so far away [chuckling] was just like right
in the backyard, but my mother would walk us every day.
Yeah, amazing.

BiTS: You couldn't have intended, I don't think, to
have been a singer when you grew up. What did
you want to do when you were at school?

SS: The strange thing is I always knew that I
wanted to be a singer, always. My earliest
memories, I had such a tremendous,

passionate love for music, and I think maybe
because I was a shy kid, I just always felt as

though I could express myself most clearly
through music. It just allowed me not to feel so self-conscious, and it became apparent
to me when I was very young that my voice was a way for me to receive acceptance.

I’m sure early on, people were just being incredibly kind and patient with my
performances [chuckles]. We used to turn my mother's couch around, and I probably
was eight years old at the time, and we would use the couch as the stage and get all

the adults from the neighbourhood to come and buy tickets to see our show. Oh, my
goodness! I knew that this was a way for me to gain acceptance and respect, but as
I got older, it just became abundantly clear that if this was my choice, it was going to

be a long, hard road. I considered maybe taking an easier path, but always came back
to you’ve got to do what makes you happy in life. That's the most important thing.
So I decided not to have a backup plan because I knew if things really got rough, and

things do get really rough in this business, if I had an easy out, I was afraid that I
might just bail and take the nearest exit. But being focused and, you know, accepting
that it's hard and so what? A lot of things in life that are worth pursuing are hard. I

think maybe the message we give ourselves and the thing we get when we're young
is, you know, don't make it so hard.

BiTS: I think you must have had some kind of lessons, singing lessons, but you've

got an incredibly powerful voice. Is that natural?