I wrote the album [Metals] in the fall. In about four months, I went from zero to finished. It usually takes forever.

There's nothing better than not knowing what's going to happen until you put the pieces together.

There are certain parts of chords that resolve things and tie a bow, and others that keep things open and unanswered.

I really love watching the 70s live performance TV series "The Midnight Special" and "The Old Grey Whistle Test". Those are the best performances you've ever seen, and they sound incredible.

Any kind of anthemic song, for the most part, they're on the positive side of things. It's not hard to identify when a melody is just one degree too complicated or one degree too simple and where that line of pop memorability lies.

Music is pretty intimate stuff and I can only work with very few people: Gonzalez being one, Mocky being another and, on a completely different level, Broken Social Scene. With Broken Social Scene its not one-on-one, its a one-on-12. Its very healthy, very comfortable, like a big pot luck supper among old friends.

There's real potency in metal. Metal fans love metal as if it's a nation they would fight for. It's not diluted by pop culture.