Most people who find themselves in New York never want to leave.
But, says Canberra musician Sophie Edwards, it's a place that also takes the concept of hustle to a new level.
A place you can never rest or relax, even if you eventually find your way, in case you get lost again.
It's no wonder that Edwards, having just spent a year living and studying in the midtown Manhattan neighbourhood of Hell's Kitchen, is quite happy, actually, to find herself back in Canberra.
And not just because it's spring, and we're sitting in the sunshine among the blossoms down by the lake.
"I'm feeling a lot more comfortable hustling here where I have all my friends and family," she says.
The 24-year-old, who grew up in Canberra and graduated from the ANU School of Music, has just released a new single, 4kInMyBrain, the first of a series of songs she wrote and produced herself during her masters studies in New York.
She was the first Australian to be accepted in the Berklee College of Music's master program, during which she worked in the prestigious Powerstation recording studio, which had been used by the likes of David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga.
Until this opportunity, she had spent a lot of time at home, during lockdown, recording songs and stretching her songwriting skills.
She even released a new single during quarantine, taking topic suggestions from her social media network.
"But there were a lot of gaps in my knowledge, just because commercial pop music isn't happening a whole lot here yet," she says.
"It's not really taught at ANU and it's not really taught in programs here. We have really amazing musicians and live musicians, but the production side is definitely different."
Casting about for a suitable master's degree to increase her skills in songwriting and production, the closest she could find was in Brisbane.
But then the New York offer from Berklee University came through.
"They've just started this new program just for masters students - they've gutted a really famous recording studio called the Power Station in Hell's Kitchen," she says.
"There's one level of this building that is just for school, and then we kind of float around depending on what our classes are, whether we get to use the studio or whether we are just in a classroom.
"It meant that we learned how to use a studio in some of the coolest studios in the world, which is ridiculous."
Her thesis involved producing a series of songs distilled from all the ones she'd been working on and wanted to produce - initially around 20 and eventually whittled down to six.
Now that she's finished her master's and is back home in Canberra, she can start thinking about putting those songs out into the world.
"All of my stuff I put out on streaming platforms at the moment, but I think once I have a few more of them out, I hope to do a bigger show where maybe it would be more tangible, with CDs or records or something," she says.
"But it's such a big gamble for artists, because you could buy a bunch of records and never sell them, and they're really expensive.
"So for me at the moment, it makes a lot more sense to just do streaming and try and bring people to shows."
It's easier said than done, though, in a town like Canberra.
Much as she's glad to be home, there are relatively few opportunities for performing.
But she's all set to play at Stonefest at the University of Canberra next month, and has put together a new band.
"I think because I've been gigging since I was like 15, I've accumulated a lot of friends that play," she says.
"I'm really excited about this new band because it's all girls as well, which is going to be cool." sophieedwardsmusic.com/
