There's downtime in music, which obviously is necessary or else you'd lose your mind in other ways, but if we're on tour and there's electricity from the audience, if you're getting a good response, then that's the positive side of the mojo where I could feel cocky and just know I'm doing good and then there's a time all of a sudden when you're alone and you just don't know if people will like it.

I guess some people like to just stick with their sound, like Weezer or something, but I think I just try to keep it as close to my real life, in a Neil Young sort of way, as possible.

I was used to hanging out late after playing a gig - you mix adrenaline with alcohol and you can stay up all night.

Some people think they are such geniuses and just thought of that. They think they are so smart, like they say "All this talk about Kurt Vile and no one asks him where he got his stupid name from," or, "No one asks where he stole his name from." And I'm like, "Oh, you're a genius."

I use a lot of humor in my writing. But it's completely black humor.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm from there. It's close enough to New York but it's not swallowed up by New York's hustle and bustle. Philly's busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It's a place where people pass through and bands don't usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources but it's not too over the top.

I've never gotten in too much trouble with alcohol. I've never had a drinking problem, really.