Andra Day

I play with doing a forehead bun a lot, just a bantu knot right in front of the forehead and keep it in with a clip. And I like doing real pinup styles but based on my natural hair.

My sister and I - she's a musician - we jam all the time. We always play around for giggles with stuff that seem unconventional or stuff that seems funny. A lot of the stuff sometimes is just a response from jam sessions in her room, so she'll be on the guitar or the keyboard, and we'll just start singing and doing stuff.

I was a dancer for long time. And you always hear that ballet is the core of dance, and that - once you have that down - you can do everything else. For me, jazz is like that for music.

I'm very particular but very thrifty at the same time.

At a young age, I wanted to be a prima ballerina and had these grand ideas that I would go study at Juilliard. It's something I laugh about now.

My style icons are Lucille Ball for her bouffant hair and all the updos, James Dean for his rockabilly style - the denim and rolled-up T-shirt thing. And I am also inspired by Dita Von Teese and Gwen Stefani. Their style is retro, but it's still very feminine at the same time.

I like things that are over the top and subtle at the same time.

At my shows, I like everyone to have a good time... but, I like for us to be real because there's freedom in that.

I tell people all the time - I'm a very spiritual person, so I pray over everything that I do including creating music, a new song.

I struggled academically in high school because it was hard to focus. It was hard to focus on those things that were other than artistic stuff.