We're all living in different states and we all have different systems within those states. Even on the most basic personal level, it affects me.

People seem to think that folk music is people with acoustic guitars. Or punk music is people with mohawks, leather jackets.

Sometimes I have the idea right away, like, "Oh, this is what this song's about. This is how I'm feeling."

I just had a really crappy time in school and I spent a lot of time writing songs and not doing work. I started talking to Noah - Panda Bear - about recording a really solid album, spending a lot of time on it to get it to sound exactly the way we wanted it to.

It's too bad music can't be like movies. For me, playing music and listening to music and creating music is very environmental. It creates a certain environment; it sets a specific mood.

I definitely don't want to play by myself. I don't relate to playing music that way. I like interacting with people.

It's weird, in New York, it's like the big theme of everything is folk music and interacting with people. Maryland is where the landscape of our music comes from, it was more like, let's walk around. People are saying that we are part of some sort of folk scene. We don't feel connected with it. We do live in the city, and communicate with people. It's all folk music.