If you know that someone is going to hear what you're doing, you're always going to be self-conscious about it. In a way that's good; it spurs you on.

People who were really good at playing or singing seemed boring to me.

For me, I'm more of a songwriter than a guitar player or singer. And not having things to work on was really kind of nice.

Sometimes songs need extra time and space to really play themselves out, and some songs it's like, this is all you need, a straightforward thing.

I don't listen to a ton of music other than putting my show together, just because my lifestyle isn't too conducive to listening to music all the time. I like to watch basketball, and I would rather not listen to music while I'm doing that.

To me, Modest Mouse is one of the best bands ever. I actually wasn't surprised that they made it big. It's always weird to see it happen, and it happens so fast, all of a sudden songs are in the background on TV.

That's one of those hazards of an interview: You get tired of your stock answer and you try to get creative and even play devil's advocate.