Sometimes I just think we're not meant to fly halfway around the world in a day. That some kind of mutation is going to happen.

The first splurge of creativity is kind of free, and the last 30 percent is painstakingly hard work, but it's good to light a fire and make it public and create that expectation. It's become part of the writing process, really, a way to ask the audience what they think, how they think it's going. I can't write songs in a vacuum.

There's always that struggle between me wanting to keep [song] new and fresh and then be - I can never get with pop songs being so repetitive.

A day off after a show with no agenda in a foreign city is about the most fertile creative situation I can imagine. Just walking with nothing to do, killing time and hearing the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar place.

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

I just pay attention to what's in my head. That's my number-one rule.

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