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.

In Japan, you get on the bullet train or the airplane, and I loved the little speeches the stewardesses would do. They even do little speeches before you play gigs.

Sometimes things in life take a few years to digest, and they find their way into the work later on. Sometimes I'm writing about things from eight years ago-they just took a long time to distill and come out in the appropriate way.

I think you have to keep a childlike quality to play music or make a record.

With my own music, I try to get away from things that are familiar and things that would be easy for me to go to.

There's a perception that if an artist produces another artist, they're going to imprint on them. But I'm the opposite. I want to hear that artist; I don't want to hear me - that's the last thing I want to hear. There are a lot of technical studio things I've learned or figured out, and I feel like I could use those things to help other people with what they're doing.

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