If you produce yourself and you're working in a band, there's certain compromises everyone has to make, because it's a democracy and you have to cater to each other's feelings. When you have a producer, you have this objective ear that's not worrying about protecting anybody's feelings, so he's just making hard decisions based on what works and what doesn't, which was huge for us. I don't think we'd be able to make those decisions by ourselves.

I feel like I'm adapting to society. I went feral a little bit. I found that when I would get back to the city, if there was any second-guessing about stuff, it would happen.

I'm still writing songs but leaving them a lot more open and not trying to control every nuance of it.

I do love the marriage of words and music. I do love them in terms of little snapshots. But, I guess I understand my own internal world, so there's a well to dip into for me that's easier than getting an idea from reading the newspaper.

The writing about what you know thing was a huge one. Not worrying so much about what people think. Just writing for myself and the band is enough.

Obviously I attach myself so much to my songwriting. If I didn't attach myself to that being my sole attribute, then I would be fine with those.

I'm just online too much. I drink too much. A lot of bad things.