I knew what real instruments I wanted and, in some cases, who I wanted to play them. I had started listening to a lot of ambient music and jazz and I wanted to incorporate stuff like that, too.

I like playing music. I don't always like the feeling of people looking at me. I don't think I'm a natural performer, but I'm getting better.

I force myself to care about the music end by wrestling with it for years.

I used to struggle a little bit with the idea of how to separate singing from acting and entertaining.

I was a member of the band when it was just, like, a conversation at a bar. Then we constantly practiced, we played shows, we tooled around in the studio. And then, when I moved and kind of bailed on that, is when... So, yeah, for the first, 'Mass Romantic,' I was heavily involved. Then, for a couple records after that, I was not really involved at all.

I was born in 1972, which means that in "rock" terms I have no business addressing "the kids" unless it's to shoo them out of my garden.

I actually do see rock and roll as pop music. I think the distinction I was making was that I was going out of my way to have a very consistent approach to production, where nothing kind of punctures the reality - or, I guess, the fake reality - of the album and what you're listening to from beginning to end.