I don't really watch TV series because I don't want to get hooked on them and have them suck up all my time.

Try to take your vision and ego as far away from the song as possible. Give as much respect as you can to the song and the initial inspiration.

I definitely don't see myself as much of a singer, because my upbringing is really based around the guitar, learning chord progressions and that sort of thing. So the singing aspect of what I do has been a secondary adventure.

I get most of my inspiration from older records and older production styles, and that ends up rearing its head in the records that I make.

If you think of the way Howlin' Wolf made records, you get the feeling there wasn't a production manager onsite, or a publicist having his say on how he should sing the songs. When you listen to his records, you feel like you're tapping into his voice.

Certain things you have to stumble on to. They can't be preprogrammed.

I like using concrete imagery, but I don't feel that's what it's about. It's a combination of concrete and abstract to take the listener somewhere they know better than you. That's true for music, seeing a painting, watching a movie... it's all some kind of an escape.