As I've gotten older, I have gotten a lot better at finding the pleasures of making music despite the business of it.

The only really weird part for me was making sense of the person on the TV at the same time as the person who I am friendly with and do something so friend-intimate with as text.

I like garage band for writing because you only have crayons and there are only five crayons in the box. Your choices are limited and I find that to be very good for me.

When I began writing songs, there was a pretty direct line between what was happening in my life and what I wrote about. So my first album was really all about my failed attempts to make a particular relationship work.

Really, everything for me comes from "Manifestra." It was an incredible gift of a song; it really describes an important moment in my life.

Mostly, the people in "the room" are paid lobbyists representing interests that could afford to pay them. No wonder policy isn't being made that helps smaller, independent musicians or those unaffiliated with a larger entity.

I always write from rhythm first, so if I need a song fast, I have to start there. Then I just threw some electric guitar at it.