Just out of curiosity, I wonder what makes music or culture or taste go in certain directions. Who knows what the forces are behind it.

I'm more critical of my songwriting than anybody, but I've worked really hard in the last five to 10 years to improve.

The only way I was allowed to play was by convincing bands to let me do a few songs while they set up. That went on for years.

Sometimes, reissues can be revelatory, or put the original record in a different light, but those are rare.

There's a perception that if an artist produces another artist, they're going to imprint on them. But I'm the opposite.

There's some quality you get when you're not totally comfortable.

There are certain records from the 80s and early 90s that you love because the songs are great, but you don't go to them as an example of great production. Over the last 20 years, myself and a lot of other musicians my age have tried to discover things in 50s, 60s, and 70s recording techniques that were lost or discarded. We've all been trying to crack this code. It's been an important period in the last 15 years, reclaiming some of those lost approaches to making records.