I think blues music is music of the soul. Of course, there are other forms. You could call some classical music blues music in that way.

And all of these writers offer me a greater understanding of what it is to be alive, and that is such an incredible thing art can do for other people. It made me want to try and get close to this strange, mysterious thing that people can do with words.

When I write - I always write on my own - I demo those songs on a four-track.

I come from an art-school background, and I still feel that in my music, it's about exploration and challenging myself, about putting myself in a place that's frightening because I haven't been there before.

My town was even smaller. Only six hundred people. We didn't have a grocery store.

I'm doing quite a lot of painting on stones - little funny fish and animals.

At this point in my life, I'm probably not gonna be able to stop writing because it's gonna help me be able to do what I need to do.