Last October we launched our new video series, Best Advice, where asked the biggest names in music to share their answers to a simple question: What’s the best advice you’ve ever got? Our plan is to build a collection of indispensable advice from artists, fellow artists, and for the first batch we talked with Christina Aguilera, Kamasi Washington, Mary J Blige, and Rick Ross, plus Ne-Yo and Sheryl Crow.

From here on in we'll be releasing a new episode of Best Advice every month and we're super excited to kick off this round with some words of wisdom from the chameleonic performer Karen O. As the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, O careened onto the early aughts indie rock scene with songs that were by turns poignant and punk rock, leading a band for whom compromise was never an option.

Since their 2003 debut Fever to Tell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs have put out two further full-lengths, while the Grammy and Oscar nominated Karen O’s eclectic output includes a "psycho-opera" (Stop the Virgins) and a stripped solo album (2014's Crush Songs), not to mention collaborations with everyone from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor to fashion house Kenzo along the way.

Spotify for Artists caught up with O recently in New York City, fresh from her latest creative endeavor with Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton (producer, artist, and one half of Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells). The seeds of the project were initially planted a decade ago when, as O tells it, she drunk-dialed Burton. Luckily they were already mutual fans. Nevertheless they didn't get in the studio until the fall of 2016, a year after O gave birth to her first child. The pair entered with nothing—no songs and no plan—and emerged with Lux Prima, a cinematic, sumptuous collection which sees O exploring foreign sonic territory (slinkier grooves, orchestrated expanses), not to mention fresh lyrical themes.

"I felt quite connected to the deeper human experience after bringing a child into the world," O told us recently. "A lot of that started coming out with these deeper sweeping themes of the cycle of life, connection to nature—all this kind of stuff was just pouring out of me and Brian is a dude, so I felt it was pretty awesome that I was bringing him on my divine feminine journey."

With almost two decades of making music and steadfastly pursuing her own creative vision, this is Karen O's Best Advice.