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.

I was grateful to be away from all that familiarity, to have a chance to do something anonymously.

I don't want to take photographs that I won't recognize as myself, and myself isn't necessarily just blankly staring at the lens.

I would try to pick the guitar up sometimes, like, "Hey, remember me?" It was like reintroducing yourself to someone who's got a grudge.

I'd hear some beautiful Sade or Kings Of Convenience ballad remixed in a club and I liked that these simple little songs seemed to be masquerading. They had put on superhero costumes, got all beefy, and here they were on the dancefloor. I was interested in that. I can't make electronic beats, so I leave it to the pros like Boys Noize and Chromeo.

The group-effort sound in recording of Sea Lion is like, you really hear all the people in the room and hear them interlocking. Theres a real freight-train energy of all these people at the same time playing.

I was in a crazy, private, awesome bubble again, and that's when I started to write.