There are too many Destroyer records to just start rattling them left them off, but they're there.

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

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 always start with the lyrics, because starting with the music means the words will be bad.

Once you feel like you can safely quit a melody, you are free to explore more important things.

It's actually really stereotypical that someone should be 40 and mellow out, but I think it's more about trying to conjure up a different intensity in my head, one where I'm more focused as a singer and hands-on with music and more exacting, and less trying to furiously fit a thousands thoughts into a four minute song.

I don't really listen to rock music anymore. But were I to write a song that sounded like it could be a rock song, I'd probably give it to the Pornographers, and I'd be excited to try to make it work.