Live is best. You have movement, and I think we should do as much as we can to put that sense of movement in the recorded music.

We're a live band. Some bands write their songs in the studio - we don't do that. We're playing songs on this tour that were written three days before the tour. And it feels good to try these songs.

I'm really happy that people are starting to hear my band, and we are so happy to be conduits for all this other happiness, and this emotional response. So, I can't be like, "that doesn't matter to me, I'm an artist, I exist apart from that!" But on the other hand, if you buy into that too much, you're setting yourself up... if I start thinking, "well, people at the show really liked one song, maybe I should write more songs like that," then I'm in trouble.

Bruegel has these paintings of people just... interacting with each other. And there's this special wink - it's not a celebration of nature, it's people that are mongrels, and half-wits, and they're doing terrible things. I don't know, it just seems like something worth singing about.

You don't expect people to go, "music has just been reinvented!" But the hope is that people won't say, "this is the most boring cliché." I mean, that's one of my pursuits, is trying to not become a cliché, or get stuck in that. But even that's a cliché in itself! It's difficult! But I think it's worth it.... It's a real vicious circle there.

Tour is disgusting, actually, I have no idea how people do it. Your brain would go to rot, unless you really, really worked hard at making sure it didn't.

The whole idea of civilization as an understandable narrative is a bit nuts. It's the most problematic of delusions.