Basically, every band that makes it has some dude with some sense of business. I don't know if our band would've been so successful were it not for Daniel's [Kessler] insight into how things really work. Daniel was the one who was diligently saying, "We should make a demo, send it out, play shows but not too many shows, get on shows with touring bands that are coming to New York."

The idea of starting a band because of Nirvana and thereby trying to sound like Nirvana is totally not the case.

I got the chess bug when I was finishing high school, we were doing chess tournaments at my house. I never got to a very high level.

In an artistic and spiritual sense I'm really not that concerned about what happens after the album is done.

...It's an unmeetable level of writing. But even if it's something I feel like I can't ever attain, it doesn't crush my spirit. I figured out early on that you gotta find your own strengths and hone them rather than trying to emulate something that impresses you.

Everyone is broken-hearted except for the drastically unimaginative

I perceive everything to be constantly subjective and strange. My version of truth in what I express, it feels like that opaque quality that you're talking about. It's just me being legitimate.