We do have to remain true to the idea of honesty within what you want to do.

The new solo album sounds like me: I'm singing about bad business transactions, bodily fluids, and courage.

It's hard: you get older, you have a career, the normal frustrations that come with what you do when you wear your heart on your sleeve and you try really heard. I was exhausted, and I couldn't quite see the magic of creating at that time. That's all. I couldn't get into it, and Andy [Kim] slowly resuscitated me, and that's how I made Darlings.

Everybody has their own ways of wanting to do things.

We do have to remain true to the idea of honesty within what you want to do.

People don't get that being a musician is a job, they don't get what the work takes. And that's just because you're living a dream, so everyone who's observing it from the outside can't really empathize with how much work it is because you're fortunate. And it's a kind of competition with yourself to stay away from all of the excess, whether it's booze or drugs or just the late nights with the addiction to watching the sun rise in some weird part of the world. But when you meet the other musicians, there's generally a spiritual exhaustion that you connect with.

I am 36 years old, I can't change. I have tried, trust me, but I can't. It's nice to get over yourself and just do it.