People don't tend to notice, but in the past 10 years especially there's been a lot of growth in how I write songs and what goes into them. You can listen to Mountain Goats from 1991 to 2007 and never hear a seventh chord. In 2007 or 2008, I started working on the piano to grow as a songwriter. I started throwing major sevens in and sixes and more interesting stuff.

People say friends don't destroy one another. What do they know about friends?

I wrote short stories when I was a teenager, but they weren't any good and I kinda knew it.

I know it's a cliché to say I write for myself, but I write for myself.

If you get into a fight and somebody punches you, you get two feelings. One: That really hurts. Two: That relief in the realness of, like, Wow, this is what it is. It's not an intellectual process.

Conservative forces in the South have a lot of power - almost dynastic - dating back many years.

There is something fierce and starved about first ideas.