'Salad Days' refers to a youthful or innocent period. And a lot of people having been asking me already so you jaded? And I'm not, I'm 23. It's me reflecting, I had to re-learn to have fun with music and I had to re-count my blessings.

I mean it was weird. But Phoenix watched us every night. But it's like they're not even a band, they're like a corporation. They bring a staff of like 40 people.

I mean, Manhattan is cool. But weird parts, I like that. Jamaica, Queens, that's great.

[ If I wasn't making music ] I'd probably end up going to school, I never went to school. Or just give up and get my plumber's ticket and move back to Edmonton and become an alcoholic.

I mean, Lady Gaga is trying to be a freak or whatever but that quality of being very meaningly and heartfelt, but also having a sense of humor about it, bands don't do that anymore. Lady Gaga's songs are cheesy. The Beatles weren't cheesy. That's the hardest thing with music: to not be cheesy, but also be meaningful. That's the goal, I think.

The time came around where the label was like, "Well, if you want something to come out in early 2017, it's going to have to be done by, like, so-and-so." So I plucked some of the old songs and wrote some new ones. Everybody keeps asking me, "Is this your L.A. record?" I was doing songs in a bedroom in New York, I was doing it in a bedroom in L.A. The only difference is when I look out the window, there's palm trees instead of snow.

It was weird [touring with them]. It felt more like we were playing for Phoenix. They asked us because they're fans of what we do.