It's very important that the music has a sense of adventure to it, and that it's done by the seat of your pants. There's a kind of nervy element about it.

I'm an Australian, and when I grew up much of my influences were American - blues music and country music, all that sort of thing.

The band is a living, breathing thing. It grows in the same way we do as human beings and if it doesn't, it dies. It's important to feed the organism, and one way of doing that is to set musical challenges that keep it alive.

I see it as my duty in some way is to be out in the world as an Australian putting forward what I consider to be authentic Australian music.

That's what I like about watching a movie: you enter an imagined world that's more interesting, more engaging than your own. Or less painful than your own.

My music has to do with beauty, and it's intended to, if not lift the spirits, then be a kind of a balm to the spirits.

I'm a kind of hard-wired pessimist. I can't help but see the world in a certain kind of way.