I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it. It has just as much power in creating a kind of perpendicular sentiment in the music, creating a nice friction that also plays up some of the tension in the song.

It was a nice relief to be able to work on individual songs.

I pretty much draw the line when people want you to do original music for commercials.

Living in war, and being a wartime band, I don't think there's any way that can't somehow influence the songwriting.

An old bandit adage: A bell is a cup until it is struck.

I have a conflicted relationship with musicals, because I think the music itself can be so horrendous. It's an industry that relies on appealing to a mainstream culture in order to survive.

When I first started writing these kind of songs that would eventually become Decemberists songs, I was writing them because I knew that nobody was listening at the time and that it wouldn't hurt to challenge myself and get weirder and see if I could alienate more people