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

The years keep going by and you realize, Wow. Doing these records is such a process: going on tour for a year and a half, then you get home and you want to do other things.

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

Sea Change was so specific. From the beginning it was set what it was going to be. All the other ideas that I had at the time I had to put to the side.

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.

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

Maybe certain aspects of what I was doing were reacting against what was happening or what people said, too. That's something that happens when you're starting out. After some time goes by and you get a little perspective, you realize that you don't need to react. You can just carry on with what you're doing. That took me a long time figure out; I've only gotten to that point in the last five or 10 years.