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 am a ham. I've no business being rock 'n' roll. I've said it over and over again that I'm a classical composer, dishevelling my personality by dabbling in rock 'n' roll.

That's what my life is, writing songs.

I learn from thinking about the future, what hasn't been done yet. That's kind of my constant obsession.

What I enjoy most about being on stage is that the natural instruments give you a greater freedom with texture. When you use natural instruments they have their own resonance.

There are a few people that I always say, "Hey, what do you think of this?" The minute that you know that you want this particular person to hear it, you know that you're pretty much done - although you're doing it to hear some feedback. It's a smart move to know whose ears you want.

We gave up on the idea of trying to make the record a good representation of the live performance.