I don't think simple is an insult. Something that's really simple and great is probably harder to do than something more complex.

I have grown more forgiving. I accept that not everything is for me. I'm not as in love with my own opinions as I used to be. And anger is not something that comes to me as quickly as it once did.

In terms of performance, something unexpected is always good, it's preferable if it's unexpectedly good. But unexpectedly bad has a lot to say for it as well. It's always nice to be able to look back on a show and say, "Oh, that's the night that this happened," and a lot of the worst memories are better than the shows with no memories. A good rehearsal is a lot harder to describe. A lot of rehearsals that end up feeling best are the ones where something really bad was happening, and you just kind of got past it and fought through it. Just dealing with things that are inevitable.

When people ask you to do stuff, it's not your idea anymore, so it's tough to get behind it.

Sometimes things that are comfortable are comfortable because it's what you're good at. When you start doing the things you're not as comfortable with, there needs to be a reason for it.

I think the record-buying public know what they like, and when people are trying to pander to them, I think they know it. They want the genuine article, so if we try to sort of "dumb down" for the mass public, I think they're too smart for that, and would recognize us as fakes. It seems like the bands that do crossover do so really on their own terms, and they just find that their terms just kind of make a big dove-tail with the masses.

I think that's a big part of how to stay together as long as possible: learning what to do when things go wrong. And it's particularly hard when you're recording, because the importance of everything you're doing is so magnified.