My father was always playing the piano. He played all kinds of music - Gershwin, all kinds of stuff. He was really a hugely encouraging force to me when I was little.

When I was singing "King of the Mountain," it was a pivotal point in the show. That's the song that took us from this concert setting of individual songs into the theatrical narrative piece.

Even just making albums - which was more within the structure that I've worked in for years - you have no idea how people will respond. You don't know if it'll be any good whatsoever. It can be terrifying.

Using telephones, they would be so intrusive and would really disrupt the show.

There are a lot of very strong connections with music and mathematics. They both can work in patterns and sequences and repetitions.

Whatever is going on in your life when you're writing has to somehow seep into your work.

I split it up into working on the two narrative pieces that can tell a story. The scariest thing was whether I'd be any good performing live again. It was such a long time since I'd done any live work. It's so different for me than recording. Every night my audiences were what I would dream of. You could just feel their support.