The weirdest time is when I'm having to explain myself all day to journalists, and then I don't perform, so there's no release, just a lot of self-consciousness. Then what do you do with that at the end of the day? How do you release your brain from talking about yourself all day?

I also don't believe that "everything happens for a reason," which is in a similar category of world-views.

Well, my main instrument is violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play violin.

You can build up expectations for a song before you record it, and then it's like nothing's good enough in the studio.

Pretty much any given day, barring some major distraction, I get melodies coming to me. Lyrics don't come quite as easily. So I've been inventing little projects and challenges to sort of kick my ass with the lyrics.

The earth almost looks like it's packed down and dense from so many feet treading over it.

The melodies come out so strong that I'm like, "Oh, crap." It's really better if they could both be kind of able to compromise, but the melodies, even more recently, they come out very fully cast and formed.