I have the barn, it's just kind of like a studio. Almost all artists have la studio to work in, and that's really what it is. A place to get away. I'll spend maybe four days out there if I can, just completely immersed - like where I don't bathe or brush my teeth for a few days, just get up and make coffee and experiment until the sun goes down.

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.

What you see at the Field Museum is only like, 10 percent of the collection. It's birds of paradise and passenger pigeons and in all these drawers that pull out, these specimens come out and it's spectacular. And it worked out.

Sometimes I think I don't have much choice in the matter. It's just what happens, and I'm following my instincts the whole time.

When I'm onstage, I'm completely comfortable, and I feel very vital and alive.

The instrumental record is a bit subtler. It's the kind of stuff on sound check, when I first pick up my violin and start to play, the kind of melodies that just pour out of me. Some of them sound very classical. Some of them sound experimental, polyrhythmic loops that I make.

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.