The music that I write is often not necessarily full of doom and gloom. You'll notice in most of the darkest songs, the music is actually pretty peaceful and lulling.

There's always a tension between wanting to write a really concise, instant gratification type song that gets under your skin the first time you hear it, and wanting to really stretch out. I think it's a healthy tension.

Some of your best songs come from a desperate attempt to escape, so sitting in an airport for hours I can just start pulling out little fragments of songs from my head. A lot of times a melody will just occur to me and be my companion for a couple of months.

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

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

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

No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness.