I'm always working on my own music, too. I've been working on a record for a few years.

You just want to go back to those 70s albums. Even a lot of the 90s indie records were still done on tape, and you hear the difference.

I try not to do email; I try to talk to people on the phone.

You can't write if you can't relate.

When I pull out vinyl - which isn't that often anymore - it's undeniable that I get a different feeling. There's a different physiology happening between the sound waves and the body that doesn't happen with music playing off the computer.

Whatever you do has to be commercial and it can't be too distracting - it has to be background music, basically.

I know my own limitations. And if somebody says, "I need songs for a cartoon garage band - they look like this and they should sound like this," it gives you a direction. I like having that kind of assignment.