I think my whole generation's mission is to kill the cliche.

I didn't even have a computer until like 10 years ago. I was still using a typewriter until 2002.

You spend so many months and years in the studio, and you see the clock ticking and so much time spent on the minutiae of technical things. And I just thought it'd be fun to do something extremely fast and get that rush of something that had some energy, something that you weren't tired of when you finished it.

Technology was something I avoided when I started out - I didn't even have electric guitars. Only played acoustic.

As music becomes more computer-based, it's lost some emotional impact.

Most of my early records were not cohesive at all, just collections of demos recorded in different years. 'Odelay' was the first time I actually got to go in the studio and record a piece of music in a continuous linear fashion, although that was written over a year.

Originally, the lyrics to "Girl" were really upbeat, and then it didn't work for me somehow. You need the dichotomy. If you're doing something happy and light, you need the shadows.