I never want to travel while I'm on vacation anymore. The only vacations I want to take now are ones where I just go and sit somewhere.

I was writing music when we finished the last Walkmen record, Heaven, and a few of these songs may have even been started before Heaven was done. With The Walkmen we all wrote a lot of stuff alone, but then we'd start collaborating with each other.

I write songs now I look at my strengths and I start there. In The Walkmen, we'd start with the live stuff.

When I finally got to 30, I'll admit that there was a little anxiety, but at the same time I actually really liked it.

I really don't feel as connected to Heaven as I do to the ones where I was there from start to finish. And on this record I was there for every moment.

When I got to L.A. I woke up and I was losing my voice because of the dry air. It was like, "Oh my god, this is going to be Joe's Pub all over again."

Traveling makes a vacation lose all appeal. You would never want to take the family to a European city. You travel a lot, but it's a job.