I like writing on piano and a computer, and a lot of 'Plans' came out of samples and vocal lines.

I feel that we are currently living in a world that is similar to late '50s, early '60s kind of world.

I have always been very open and earnest about some things in my life, some things that are not directly in my life, but they're twirling around me at the time.

You can't please everybody all the time, but I think for the most part we tend to maintain a healthy level of self-reference to kind of make sure we continue to push things forward.

I like writing on piano and a computer, and a lot of 'Plans' came out of samples and vocal lines.

The Photo Album is the weakest record. For the first time in our careers, we found ourselves with an economic incentive to be on the road and to be making albums. We had cut ourselves free from the security of day-job life. The goals became primarily financial, at least for a while. That was the roughest time we had ever had as a band, because that was the first moment we realized that this was for real. We were not goofing around anymore. We all threw everything we had into this in a way where we all found ourselves really far from home, and we were stuck with each other.

Nada Surf and Harvey Danger are good bands. I think they've just stayed true to why they play music in the first place, it's just because they love doing it and they love each other and that's the impetus for doing it, not trying to keep singles on the radio and on MTV.