I'm just trying to get my body in shape so that I can handle it. It's a very physically demanding thing. I've been doing it for 16 years, so I know what I'm going into now. I'm trying to stay calm and not panic.

Sometimes I think I don't have much choice in the matter. It's just what happens, and I'm following my instincts the whole time.

Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies.

I think when I was pretty young I got really into the tone of my instrument and I remember just playing one note for an hour to just kind of feel the resonance of the violin.

I put a lot into my records, and I won't release anything I'm not totally thrilled with.

I don't get particularly precious about things like this, though. Like the record company said, "We need a radio edit that delivers the hook" - I don't even know what they consider the hook in that song ["Oh No"] - "that delivers the hook sooner." So I'm like, "Okay. I see that." And they were all walking on eggshells, like is this going to be sacrilegious to me or something, to mess with this art I've created? And I'm like, "Great. I get to tinker with it, I get to mess with my song some more."

I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.