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

My whole generation's mission is to kill the cliche...it's one of the reasons a lot of my generation are always on the fence about things. They're afraid to commit to anything for fear of seeming like a cliche. They're afraid to commit to their lives because they see so much of the world as a cliche.

With modern recording techniques, and living in the Pro Tools era, the process gets really drawn-out, and it can become painstaking.

I didn't want to do something typical.

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.

I do think music sounds better when it's on tape and more simply recorded.

I remember you would record a guitar part, and we would have to sit there for 15 or 20 minutes waiting for the computer to process it. You'd see the little wheel spinning on the computer, and you'd be praying that the hard drive didn't crash and you didn't lose the performance.