I like having some things very clear while other things are obscured... so that it kind of keeps coming into and out of focus.

The thing is that honestly we haven't had an audience. And we have a chance to have an audience now. Which is great because I think we've sort of evolved as a band to the point where I think we might actually be interesting to go see.

Being like stranded without a label in the middle of tour was very strange. On the other hand it made us move instantly. I mean, I didn't wallow. I was like, "Alright, who can we email? Let's just start putting stuff out." I felt like we were playing really well and it was at least worth a shot.

The nice thing about being a band that nobody knows about is that you can do whatever you want.

The only problem with Shearwater as a name for a band is that people sort of think that it's this amalgamated word like Pushmonkey or something. Doesn't have an actual...you know, like Clearwater or Stillwater, they don't realize that it actually is a thing. It seemed like such a beautiful word, I was so suprised that no body had named their band that.

When you make a record, you probably are not going to hit exactly what you were aiming for. You also have to let go at a certain point, and just trust it.

One of our very favorite shows of 2008 was our Slowtrain instore. We drove straight from San Francisco, pulled up to the back of the store, dragged our entire setup inside and played our new album, Rook, start-to-finish - and they let us get away with it.