Quotes from Amber Mark

After my mother passed away, I really felt there were things that I hadn't said or things that I did say that I kind of regretted saying.

My mother definitely plays a big role in my life and in my work. The majority of what I've created has to do with her passing and how I dealt with losing the most important person in my life.

When I wrote 'Monsoon,' I always imagined the music video being shot in India. The song had so much to do with my time in India with my mother as well as leaving her in India during the monsoon season to visit my family in N.Y. It really was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to shoot in India.

My mother was a Tibetan Buddhist.

'Conexao,' which means 'connection' in Portuguese, is about exploring the more nuanced highs and lows of romance.

I dream of collaborating with Q-Tip and Timbaland - it's all producers. I'd really like to work with Drake and DRAM. The Weeknd would be dope. The list goes on and on. If Michael Jackson were alive, I'd love to collaborate with him.

Once I accumulated a bunch of sounds and learned how to use Logic, I was like, 'Wait a second, I don't need to work with any producers. I can do this on my own.'

Just politics in general is a disgusting thing.

I went down the creative path in my teen years, and when I was in high school, in my junior year, I would perform at this program that was very similar to 'School of Rock.' That was when I started writing and realized that's what I wanted to do.

I've heard stories of other people that are similar stories to me - their mother or father passing away. People have come out to me on Instagram. It's amazing that they can tell me and confide in me. I always want to take the time and write these long messages telling them how much that means to me.

'Heatwave' just fits the feel of summer for me.

I would say the first concert I ever went to is my earliest memory. I was four and already obsessed with Michael Jackson. We were living in Munich at the time. My mom, being the best person ever, somehow managed to get us two tickets to the '97 Michael Jackson History World Tour.

I need quiet when I'm recording because I don't want any noise in the background.

I do talk about hard times, but I also try to bring out the light.

I could never know someone who could hurt someone else and not feel like a horrible person.

'Lose My Cool' is the second track on my EP dedicated to a stage in the grieving process. This track represents anger. I really bottled a lot up after my mother passed, and one day, I couldn't handle it anymore and just exploded on all of my friends and family. It was a very passive way of dealing with things, not very healthy.

Writing by myself in my bedroom is definitely where I feel most creative.

I get so insecure about studio sessions.

My mother was born in 1953, my brother was born in 1983, and I was born in 1993. Then, my Mum passed away on June 3 at 10:23 P.M. in 2013. Since then, I'd see threes everywhere.

You know that melancholy feeling when you watch the end of a movie and you're crying - but also there is hope? I wanted that feeling in 'Monsoon.' I don't want people to be like, 'This is a really depressing EP. I just want to cry the whole way through.'

My friends and family unknowingly tend to get in the way when I'm in my creative zones.

I want people to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

When you lose someone that's really important to you, I feel like it's something that never really goes away. It's almost learning how to live with an empty feeling; it's weird. Something's always missing, but you kind of get used to it.

I stayed in Miami and New York until I was about nine, and then we moved to India and stayed there for about four years and eventually moved to Berlin. It was definitely a cultural experience in its fullest, and I absorbed a lot. I don't regret any of it.