I suddenly thought about being backstage, and I think it shocks you to meet the people you shared your bedrooms with. And a lot of them either take themselves too seriously or don't know how to take themselves at all. But I wanted to be aware in a very sarcastic way that every song I've written has probably been written about 12-16 times before. And doing that makes it very hard for me to accept serious singer-songwriters in the world, the up-and-comers, the ones who are out there who let that define their every move, who live and die and breathe for it. It's a bit of a tragedy, I think.

As an artist, expectations are basically your enemy. If you're truly making something to make it, then you're not thinking about anything else except what you're making.

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

The great thing about "Shoot 'Em Up, Baby" is that it's the first song that we went and recorded [with Andy Kim].

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

There's an interesting story around that ["Heaven Without a Gun"], because the girl I was dating at the time got into a bike accident and couldn't make it into the studio, and the gentleman Dave Hamlin who worked on this record along with Ohad sort of took it, rearranged it. Dave went and sonically changed it and changed the keys so that Andy could sing it better. All these pieces came together that suddenly displayed that the song was meant for Andy [Kim] to sing. And he always said, "I'll never understand it, but I'll sing it with all my heart."

There's nothing better than striving to be a better man.