Now since I've gotten back into it, I've been listening to a lot more of the 1990s death metal type stuff.

On a musical level, I do find it rewarding. It's not like I want to blow my brains out while I'm playing these songs from so long ago. I am still surprised by the way the songs are constructed - note choices, the way the arrangements are made, the way these songs are assembled. I'm still amazed at times.

In my entire life I never set out to do anything ground-breaking or pioneering, and I'm not going to start anytime soon.

We were pretty normal - suburban kids having a good time playing in bands. We were silly. We weren't dark, intense, humorless people. Humor was one of the connecting forces among us. It was more like camaraderie.

You can go to any small town in America, there's going to be a metal fan there. You can't say that about post-rock.

When we woke up every morning, one of our things was, "Let's go put a new sign in the back window of the van." Those are the different signs we had up in the back of our van, so that the people behind us could have something enjoyable to look at.

When I was really young, I was really into Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and those kinds of bands.