I feel really personally connected to all of the songs, so stepping back is really hard.

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."

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

I think I got interested in singing without being too over-the-top. I was more calmly singing the words - which I thought had really come a long way. I thought they were worth singing clearly.

When you spend your whole life traveling it does get really tedious and exhausting.

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.

The great thing is that when you hire string players you always get really great players. I don't know why that is.