I think that's becoming more and more of a priority, letting other aspects of life take precedent over making music, or just approaching the whole thing more holistically.

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

I write all the time but often abandon things I don't think will go anywhere. It's rare that I'll labor over writing something that doesn't feel like it will turn into a keeper.

Being in Portland is cool. I have some good friends here and the general feeling might be a little more welcoming.

We're going out to play all the places where people might want to see us, because next time we might not just think about hitting every market or how we can make the most money.

We definitely classify things in order to get closer to what we believe in - so it serves a purpose to really think about one style of music, and to understand the shades of delineation between similar artists. But yeah, it's really nice to listen to something the way most people listen to music! Just to enjoy it, without having to put it in context.

I'm looking forward to doing things more intuitively in the future, just going with whatever happens and not immediately categorizing it as potentially good or bad or original or whatever.