Coming from a smaller place always made things feel more personal, which is really what it's all about.

I don't make my living making records. Maybe someday I will.

When I'm writing with just an acoustic guitar, it can be for anyone.

Songs aren't owned by anyone.

You know, there's always someone in mind when I'm writing. You know, it's all comes from somewhere inside.

I'm definitely a guitar player, but it's the last thing I listen to in a song, after the singer and the drums.

A lot of musicians are super - insecure and they take forever and they obsess over the minutia and it's really stifling. It's not that the band The Black Keys is that confident, it's that we're not striving for perfection. We are just trying to have fun. None of the music that we like is perfect. It's good. And real. We just want to make real records, flaws and all.