My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.

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

I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes.

I still kind of believe this absurd line that if you have to write it down, it's not worth remembering.

I'm not a home-studio guy. I spend a lot of time working by myself developing songs, but I really need some other counterpart to help me pull it all together, because you go nuts working if I had to finish an entire project all within my own head.

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.

When I start asking my friends, "What do you think this means?" And it leads to way more interesting conversations than what it actually ends up meaning in the dictionary. Like "apocryphal," for instance.