If the melody is telling me this is what the song is about, then I'm sort of forced into confession, autobiography or fantasy. If I don't do that, I've hamstrung the melody.

White people don't sing together very often, and when they do, it's about the celebrity of the song. The singing at my shows is all about harmony.

I don't leave my neighborhood. I don't go anywhere. There are four blocks I live in and there are two coffee shops, one at each end of the block... so I don't do much driving... Some people would say they never see me because I don't go anywhere. I stay in the blue state of Nashville, in my bubble.

It's a tough thing to know that when you're making your album, you're going to end up collaborating with, say, Wal-Mart, on your artwork. That just sucks. And the pressure behind getting the numbers real fast is, to me, dizzying.

I'm aware that I'm very fringe, and it's nice that way.

I think people use temp music quite a bit, but the people who write the temp music don't ever really learn that their music was inspiring a movie.

Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.