Anything we were studying in school, like math, or understanding somebody's behavior outside of school, kind of worked its way into something I could understand by way of a musical experience I'd had or something I'd heard.

I think my role as a musician is much more reactionary than that of the creative personality type who locks himself in a tower and then comes out with Pet Sounds or something. I just respond to stimuli more than anything.

I don't have a problem working 14 hours a day and still have ears and have a brain to mix afterwards. But I don't have the same strength to actively pursue and stay enthused about things like literature and movies and a social life - things that enhance the music, and the person.

When you have the catalog of work, it doesn't feel like you've got one shot to get it right; it's just like, you're making a new document of something at the present time, and it's a living thing, and it changes. It's been cool to help other people make their records, to produce. You get a crash course in things that you don't get as the artist.

I don't want to become this lazy person, a guy who thinks in terms of New Year's resolutions. I really do want to see a change in myself in certain ways, but I want to figure out exactly what they are and not have it be like a diet that I'm trying.

My favorite experiences have all been finding myself at one point in a timeline and going in both directions, just discovering at my own pace. If I could admit to be playing some kind of long game, and strategizing this, I would.

The most attractive thing that I've seen in the creative realm is the enthusiasm in people that does not seem to burn out. That's what I'm after.