I wanted to remind people that there was a time when music required an attention span.

I wanted to give my first instincts a chance without shooting them down immediately, which I sometimes do.

Songs are puzzles - you get an intro, or maybe an end, but you gotta fill in the rest. Sometimes they come easy and sometimes they're a pain in the ass.

I didn't want to put myself, or anyone else, asleep with another quintessential Mark Kozelek album.

I'm a boxing junkie, a serial-killer junkie, and a classical guitar junkie. All of these guys are great, poetic references.

Like many musicians, it's my roots in music, playing cover songs. I've done probably a lot more covers than the average person who does what I do, but I'm very proud of it, and I do feel like I really bring a lot artistically to these covers.

I'm always moving forward creatively and don't like stalling, trying to find the perfect snare drum sound.