I don't like the way recording to digital sounds. Most of the time when I'm recording to 2-inch tape, I still have a romantic vision of how songs sounded coming out of the radio when I was younger, and how they sounded coming out of my little four-track cassette player.

The best live recordings capture elements of surprise onstage.

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.

It was endlessly amusing to me to try to imitate John Lennon and Paul McCartney's harmonies using the guitar.

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.

I love the sound of Elmore James, the sound early guitarists like him got just by using minimal means.

I always prefer other people's interpretations over my own, so I'm not very quick to make explicit what exactly a song or record is about.