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.

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'm somebody who gets a lot of inspiration from dreams.

There's at least one fist bump every interview.

I get annoyed with movies or books, songs or records that deliberately try to make you feel a certain way.

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.

As a producer, I like to bring in unexpected voices, unexpected musicians, like Watt and Joey Spampinato of NRBQ.