Melodies are just honest. They can only be what they are. Words have the capacity for deception. Theyre all full of subtext, and some of them are cliche and overused and vernacular. Theyre tricky. All I can say is, words are tricky.

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

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

There's been this perception that Europeans still hold on to, that they discover the real talented ones in American culture and give them proper credit and that's not true anymore - it used to be. A lot of jazz musicians would get respect in Europe.

I've always had levity in my songs, so I like to turn things over, twist them around, and make fun of myself.

People who are thinking about your music almost as much as you are, that almost never happens.

Anyway, I'm digressing, but this is just kind of this 10-and-a-half-minute, ambient - you hear cicadas and birds and the wind outside and crickets as I'm swelling the piece. I could never do that on a pop record. I could, but why would I want to be agitating?