We're covering all our bases so we can do whatever we want next time. That's how we're looking at it, rather than this just being an endless number of album/tour cycles.

I've been listening to a lot of John Coltrane. I don't know if that would or wouldn't surprise anybody. I go through different phases - sometimes I want to listen to music that's just pummeling.

I only write maybe one or two songs every couple of years that I think are good enough to play alone without other stuff happening.

As far as the music being inspired by Seattle, I think it's in some of the songs. Seattle is a really beautiful place in the right light, it's perched on a pretty unique geographic setting.

They even let me do the ads for the album. I definitely want it all to be presented right, but I don't want to be selling. I mean, people do deluxe editions, and I don't even really know how I feel about those yet.

Our vocal harmonies started to feel like a cop-out: all group-singing, all the time.

The only thing I think about is doing something where I'm the only person making all the decisions - I think that would be fun to do, just to get it out of my system. And honestly, I kind of got it out of my system when I recorded three songs and put them online. That was enough of a solo experience for me; it scratched that itch.