Some of my earlier songs are kind of more about mental illness.

What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.

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

Songwriters can sort of get away with murder. You can throw out crazy theories and not have to back it up with data or graphs or research.

Songwriting requires some sort of ceremony to even get the process started, and it can be somewhat arbitrary.

If something gets under my own skin, and keeps reoccurring, it starts to take on a certain weight and value, and I think, "I have to put this in the song. I have no choice but to mention Greek Cypriots in this song." It's a little internal challenge to myself. Like creating little imaginary rituals in yourself to help the song go from nonexisting to existing.

If you take a little time, let's say three weeks off, after recording a song, and you listen to it every other day, you're just going to know eventually.