No-one wants to hear anything spoken in earnest anymore, unless it happens to involve unrequited, teenage love.

Early on I was a lot more unsure of myself on stage. When our band The Decemberists was getting bigger audiences I was more concerned about alienating them, so I wasn't as willing to take risks and do weird stuff on stage. But once you get more accustomed to it you tend to have more fun with it and not worry about being pilloried for acting out. Whenever you play in front of 400 or 500 more people than you're used to it's always a weird, transitional period.

Prog-rock and concept records and some ambitious projects were kind of anathema post-punk. They were destroyed with the advent of punk rock. You don't necessarily need to have a degree in music composition to play in a rock band anymore, which is a great thing.

When you get respect from the people who are buying your music and coming to your shows, there's an expectation that you have to live up to your own standards.

I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it.

No-one wants to hear anything spoken in earnest anymore, unless it happens to involve unrequited, teenage love.

I don't feel like we're setting ourselves up to be exclusive. I don't want to set up an attitude where we're telling people 'You can't listen to our music if you don't have a college degree.