I've done so many albums where I've been in the studio for 14 hours a day for six months just trying to come up with things on my own. It's a nice change helping other people with their music and not being all about what I'm trying to do myself.

Growing up, a film was an action film or it was a comedy or it was romantic, but you don't really see such stark lines between genres nowadays.

It gets a little bit troublesome when you have something that's overcompressed that shouldn't be.

There's a different physiology happening between the sound waves and the body that doesn't happen with music playing off the computer. About five years ago, I got a turntable that hooks up to your computer, and I put the vinyl in there and I listened to it back-to-back with a CD, and it didn't even compare. But people don't have time to go track down vinyl, lower it in, all that. And they probably don't care. It's hard to make music knowing that it's not going to be received by the listener in the way that it should be.

I enjoy recording live better, but I think by the nature of it you are going to end up with something that's a little bit more traditional.

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

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