In the studio you have pretty much carte blanche with whatever you're doing. You can turn natural instruments into electronic instruments.

In cities like New York and Austin, there's much more of a social context for music than in other places.

I like it here in New York. I like the idea of having to keep eyes in the back of your head all the time.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

I'm writing a movie about Mozart going to New York in the '60s. I've been reading so many novels.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.