No matter how naturally gifted you are, it's your passion that's going to make you better and maybe touch some people.

The musicians themselves don't seem to know enough about why they're in the positions they're in, so they're afraid to lose those positions.

I have no shame in making music that maybe, if you listen to it long enough, you'll realize you've heard this or that part of it before.

I'm obviously really opinionated, but as a producer, you don't necessarily want the person you're working with to try to impress you - you want them to just be themselves. Then you can edit or mess around with what they've come up with. But you have to allow the artist that space.

What affected me the most about the Beatles was that they were the biggest band in the world and they could have done anything they wanted.

Some people have been listening to the Beatles their whole lives; I didn't discover them until I was 18 years old. As a result, I'm still very affected and moved by their music - maybe in a way that's different from someone who grew up around it.

Broken Bells reminds me how much fun I have making music.