I definitely have to give myself permission, like on "Master Swarm," to rip a lead on that. Just play a violin solo that's - it's a bit showoff-y, but it's fun, so who cares?

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

There's a lot of interesting words, nomenclatures, in science.

It's like you don't know you're making a record unless you're half-killing yourself.

The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter.

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.

I really like the sound of analog things where clearly there's something being touched. You can sense that something is handmade. So much with digital, there's a disconnect.