If you stand still in any city long enough, you see everyone pass you by. So you're in Chicago. If you stand on the corner of Belmont and Clark, and you do that for three years, you'll pretty much have seen everybody in Chicago pass that junction.

Well, everything about singing, I learned from busking. Everything I learned about songwriting, I learned from busking.

Keeping the pen out of your hand as much as possible is the best way to write a song, in my estimation. But the pen must come in to tighten it up.

I've always loved playing solo. I guess in a way I just feel blessed to be able to make music. My favorite thing is usually whatever I'm doing right there and then.

Our imagination just needs space. It's all it needs, that moment where you just sort of stare into the distance where your brain gets to sort of somehow rise up.

My dad was quiet, angry, shut down. So my thing is: I express everything that's there. I want to get it all out.

You know, albums are a funny thing. They're not like an intellectual decision. It's a collection of your kind of musings.