Writing music and lyrics that mean something personal to me. It's an exciting, intense, cathartic, this-is-who-I-am experience.

We never really set out to talk about California on the album ['California'], it was something that we noticed that was happening about three-quarters of the way through the recording process. We were looking at which songs we thought would make the record and we realised that there was this theme coming through. I think it's just a product of being in California for as long as I have.

The strongest human emotion is probably love. I think it's universal. I think that across language and country and time and everything else, probably love.

Music is in every country and every culture around the world. It's universal.

I kinda like the duality of California and the dark side, the underbelly of California, and I think that's what this album ['California']feels like - there's endless hope and optimism but there's also a darker side.

As a producer, I'm an objective observer, helping a band form their ideas into a cohesive album. It's a step back from the intimacy of creation.

When I was growing up skateboarding, a bunch of friends and I went to this thrift store and as we were leaving I jumped up and passed gas in my friend's face. I turned around and it wasn't my friend, it was this nice old lady who was just walking out of the store. That was probably one of the more awkward apologies I've had to make in my life.