I guess, a lot of people think is a long time between albums. It was needed for me. I went through a lot to get the album ["Wild Things"] finished. I actually went through a lot to even get the album started.

I do enjoy a beer. And a shot of vodka with some apple juice is what loosens me up before I go onstage, because I get really nervous. I wish I could say it was something more healthy, like Pilates.

I don't want to say I drank the Kool-Aid because I'm definitely not religious and I don't buy into any religion at all. I'm anti, because I don't like anyone being discriminated against. But, I do think that I very much needed a sunny place for me to feel happier, and living in LA was almost like that sort of cleansing experience like I was being baptized in a river.

"The River" [song] is also, yes, very metaphorical. Rivers are cleansing. As long as human beings have been on the Earth we've used rivers to cleanse ourselves. And, for me, the lyrics "something in the river," I think is - well, the river is a metaphor for where I was at the time.

You can't always be like 'sunshine and roses'. I like a little bit of darkness.

I don't want anyone to think that I've been lost to California.

I was living in the U.K. I was back in New Zealand for the New Zealand Music Awards, which is like our annual New Zealand GRAMMYs.